The BBC and ITV confirmed that they are in the concluding phase of talks to establish a partnership to bring a new streaming service to UK audiences.

The BBC and ITV have agreed a joint vision for the service, to be called BritBox, and are now working on a formal legal agreement. The BBC and ITV anticipate that other partners will be added to BritBox and both will speak to regulators and the wider industry about their proposals.

BritBox would be an original streaming service providing a collection of British boxsets and original series, on demand and would provide British content along with new commissions for British production companies specifically created for BritBox.

The organisations have alreay launched the BritBox streaming service in North America which they said to have over half a million subscribers.

The aim is to launch the service in the second half of 2019. While neither the BBC or ITV can confirm pricing at this stage, the promise is that "it will be competitive."

The BBC and ITV already offer a limited range of programs via free streaming services iPlayer and ITV Hub respectively.