The BBC may soon take over Netflix’s place on streaming service. The company is planning to launch its own streaming service, as reported by Telegraph.

Once launched, people in UK would be the first to enjoy this service. According to plan, BBC would partner with ITV for this program. It’s quite a brave move since ITV and BBC are both rival in UK commercial industry. As for the player, most likely BBC would use its own iPlayer.

BBC’s Strategy for Future Market

As the world’s first national broadcasting company, BBC surely knows how to read the market. BBC has already got high quality content. With this asset, BBC is ready to move to the next level. The world is moving towards an on-demand streaming service. People choose contents they want to watch. You can’t just come and ask people to watch contents you’ve prepared previously. We have passed those days. Today is the era of subscription-based, on-demand content.

As a national broadcasting company, the UK government also support BBC for this move. A government source said that in this era of subscription service, BBC must always do its best to give their customers the best service. If that means giving subscription-based, on-demand service, the government encourages BBC to take such a move.

Here is the complete statement from the UK government.

If they want to explore that kind of thing, we’d encourage them. There may come a moment in the future where all television is delivered online, and if you do that it becomes a more realistic practical possibility if you wanted to move towards an element of voluntary subscription, which is why the BBC, who see the way the world is changing, have said, ‘Yeah we will just see for the online provision, whether or not there might be a case for additional new content being delivered on a subscription service, via the iPlayer.’

A Challenge to Netflix

As reported by TechCrunch, this new service would be likely called as the BBC Britflix. Ring a bell? Yep, the name is similar to Netflix. Perhaps, it is meant as a challenge to Netflix. This company has lost millions of its users because of a simple mistake. VPN restriction. The company might have called this attempt a victory over VPN users. But, there is always a side effect of any decision. In case of Netflix, the company might have triggered piracy in some countries. The one they’ve been trying to fight now appears because of their action.

BBC surely doesn’t want to repeat this mistake. That’s why they wait until this moment. Let’s see how the market responds to Netflix decision and make it a precious input for the company. Sure, after Netflix mistake, no one is expecting BBC to fall into the same pit. The question is, would BBC stream the high quality movies we want?

People once joined Netflix because it got lots of premium content. They got high-class original movies, you can’t find anywhere else. The only recent reason people left Netflix is their decision about VPN users. Therefore, if BBC wants to win this fight, they have to be sure about two important things. First, they must have premium contents on their library. Second, it must be available for all subscribers. No restriction, even to VPN users. Give everything people subscribe for. You can’t just ask people to pay for something they think they’d got, but you give nothing to them. It’s piracy. No matter from what perspective you see it. It’s still piracy.

So, BBC, on which side will you stand? Netflix or your customers?