BritBox: BBC and ITV are launching a joint streaming service and people have a lot of questions

Today BBC and ITV have unveiled plans to launch a joint streaming service called BritBox that will host the best in British box-sets and original television.

The service which could rival Netflix and Amazon Prime, is said to be "in the concluding phase" of talks between the two broadcasters with Channel 4 and Channel 5 also believed to be joining the service.

BritBox is likely to feature both current and classic television from both networks and is expected to launch later in the year, with a small subscription fee expected to be paid by users.

At the time of writing, not much else is known about the service and what it means for the future of the iPlayer or ITV Player but the immediate response online hasn't been overwhelmingly positive as many people are questioning why they should pay extra after already paying their licence fee.

Others rightly pointed out that royalties and a licence fee are different things and that you don't have to sign up to it if you don't want to use it.

Elsewhere the branding of BritBox hasn't gone down particularly well either.

As many have already pointed out, a version of BritBox already exists in the United States and has proven to be a success with users having to pay a fee of $6.99 a month to access the content.

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