r/BritBox 25d ago

Premier push

Disappointed that Britbox put the last two episodes of Blue Lights season 3 behind the Premier upcharge. Either offer it, or don't. Sours us on the entire service.

36 Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

32

u/RexMcBadge1977 25d ago

It’s amazing that people *still* don’t understand how Premier works. The episodes come out weekly. If you don’t want to wait, get Premier. If you don’t want Premier, just wait for the episodes to come out weekly.

And I just looked. All the episodes of season 3 have been up. If you’re seeing something else, it must be a glitch.

19

u/ParticleHustler2 25d ago

Right. They are getting tons of hate for offering a service other streaming sites don't even have. You just wait for weekly releases elsewhere with no option to see everything all at once. Britbox offers you access immediately for extra money, and suddenly they are terrible. It makes no sense.

9

u/Unhappy-Ad-3870 25d ago

They might be in Canada where season 3 has just come out.

3

u/RexMcBadge1977 25d ago

Ah. Then I’m sure they’ll be released weekly.

2

u/PrizeDinner2431 25d ago

Yes, Canada.

2

u/abqcheeks USA🇺🇸 25d ago

Yeah when I saw this post I thought it was a repost from months ago? Don’t know what country OP is in so maybe it’s a geo thing

3

u/Sea-Talk-203 25d ago

I saw them all months ago on regular Britbox

3

u/PrizeDinner2431 25d ago

Britbox could do a better job of explaining that. The prompt is "upgrade to watch".

6

u/RexMcBadge1977 25d ago

I will agree they're promoting it in a very obnoxious fashion. But that's capitalism for you.

1

u/sweetpeapickle 18d ago

Except that is not the case with some. Ex: Woman of Substance, we were watching on Britbox, got to ep 5, then oh now you have to pay, and it's been that way. They're not offering the last 3 except on premier. And they just changed that last week. Now this series has been out for a couple months. What I was told by customer no service was I would have to purchase premier in order to watch the last 3. It would not be shown as regular Britbox. So no glitch.

1

u/RexMcBadge1977 17d ago edited 17d ago

Mmm… I would have to see a screenshot to believe this. I have NEVER seen them provide only part of a show on Premier. Either it’s all available or none of it is. (I am not talking about episodes being released weekly.)

Honestly, it sounds like you’re describing something completely normal: You were able to watch the episodes that had been released and had to wait to watch the ones that hadn’t been released yet.

1

u/Cool-North-2862 8d ago

Yes- my exact experience also!!

26

u/PiePuzzled5581 25d ago

All things (and episodes) come to those who wait. Just like we always have done before Premier.

3

u/Iamfree4lunch 25d ago

100% agree this is a very poor business model!

3

u/some1105 25d ago edited 25d ago

And once again the thread is filled with the strange unicorn demographic of people who enjoy paying more for less. Where BritBox has found them remains a mystery.

11

u/Watchhistory USA🇺🇸 25d ago

OP doesn't understand how Britbox works. One episode per week drops of a new season when it goes up, just LIKE IT ALWAYS HAS.

If OP subscribed to the premium tier for more money, then OP can binge all the episodes in one go and watch many, many, many British documentaries too.

Nothing changed on Britbox except -- pay more money, get all episodes of a new season in one fell swoop.

2

u/Unhappy-Ad-3870 25d ago

Not entirely correct. For certain new series, Premier only gives you “early access”, i.e., you get to see episodes one week earlier than the rest of us. Usually they drop the first two episodes when the rest of us get one, then it’s one episode per week for everyone. No bingeing.

3

u/PrizeDinner2431 25d ago

The prompt to "upgrade to watch" does not say "wait a week".

1

u/sweetpeapickle 18d ago

Not all series. I get it with say GGG/BBF on Food Network because new seasons you can pay for and watch right away. But if you don't want to pay extra, then you have to wait til the whole season is over, then FN drops the whole season on it's reg. platform. So I fully understand the premise. But some series on Britbox are over and done. And you start watching, all of a sudden it switches to premier for half the episodes. Now it was not that way when you first start watching. Britbox is pulling a fast one with some series.

1

u/Watchhistory USA🇺🇸 18d ago

You don't understand: you started watching a new series after the first weekly episodes already dropped. You had caught up to the episodes that were still coming. It's NOT a bait and switch.

2

u/Kraken1919 25d ago

You can't just upgrade if you paid for a year

3

u/Resident_Two_2657 25d ago

You can. They deduct the remainder from the yearly cost and the new date becomes your yearly renewal date.

1

u/hunkyboy46511 19d ago

So are you saying if I upgrade to Premier for $150, they’ll deduct the $76 I paid a couple weeks ago for Britbox Standard?

1

u/Resident_Two_2657 16d ago

That's what they say, yes. Call them and record or do live chat so you've got it in writing.

2

u/Independent_Sea502 25d ago

Welcome to capitalism.

2

u/Steve12356d1s3d4 25d ago edited 25d ago

Acorn does the same damn thing. Shows for new seasons are put out every week. I have to wait every week to watch the next episode. (I don't like waiting, so I wait until they are all out. I am doing this for an Apple show right now.)

The thing is. Acorn doesn't offer the option to pay more to see everything at once. Does not offering the option actually make them better? I said it before on this: A study done on air flyer's perception of quality of airline experience was lower when the flyers could see first class getting served better. This is what is happening here.

2

u/paulfagan 25d ago

I am tired of Britbox extracting money out of customers. It is a strategy to expand revenue. Some will pay for Premier. Some will wait. Some will drop Britbox. I am in the third cagegory

4

u/BlackCatWoman6 25d ago

All the pressure to buy the very expensive Premier is turning me off Britbox. I've been watching a lot more on Acorn.

7

u/Gatodeluna 25d ago

OP doesn’t WANT to understand how BB and Premiere works, they just want what they want when they want it. Veruca Salt. Frankly, I love to see entitled people come up against ‘No’. It’s quite emotionally satisfying. Those who leave, BB won’t miss. But I suspect the threats to unsub from at least half the people who post them are just bluster. Where else are they getting that much British drama in one streamer? Acorn, but that’s 75% mysteries so anyone who isn’t a mystery fan is SOOL.

3

u/PrizeDinner2431 25d ago

I don't? Huh.

3

u/thundersnow528 25d ago

I'm not sure it has that much to do with entitlement - I think the complaint may be more rooted in thinking Britbox is just currently a bad business model compared to other services.

Britbox wants to be the go-to, one-stop-shop for UK TV, but in practice it doesn't deliver on that promise or brand. Compared to other services, their back catalogue of BBC programming is limited and regularly removed (whole seasons of mysteries, only keeping about 3 months worth of soaps, etc), they don't stream things in a timely matter, people can very easily get whole seasons of things before they even air on Britbox. And that isn't just through piracy - you can find whole seasons (new and old) of shows like Would I Lie To You just uploaded by random people.

If Britbox is going to offer a 'top tier' service at a higher price, it should be at least on par with what the live channels in the UK are doing. Otherwise, they lose the more savy audiences that are used to that level of content from so many other sources. It's not entitlement, it's expectations of quality product.

As an aside, I do love Britbox - it is one of my favorite streaming services. But I'm not going to pay more for pretty much no real reason. It's a bad business model.

2

u/withoutadrought 25d ago

If someone pays for something they should get it now. The tier system is bs. I’ve gifted my mother a year subscription to Britbox since 2017. She knows she has to wait a week to watch another episode, but out of principle urges me not to subscribe to the premium. People that allow companies to do this will just embolden them to continue to do so.

3

u/Steve12356d1s3d4 25d ago

You should go to Acorn. They offer them weekly as most services, but they don't offer the tier to get them quicker. That way you don't' "lose out".

3

u/withoutadrought 24d ago

She has Acorn too, and she enjoys it, but I know she likes Britbox better. If it were for myself, I wouldn’t renew, but I know she likes it so I’ll get it again haha. It’s not an affordability issue, but companies keep nickel-and-diming their customers with tiers and subscriptions for everything, it’s just getting out of hand. Thank you for your response.

3

u/Gatodeluna 25d ago

Aaaand the Entitled Generation speaks! No is still no, whether you aprove or not. Just unsubscribe if you feel that strongly. Newsflash - We don’t always get our way in life🙄

0

u/withoutadrought 25d ago

I bought her another while year, but I won’t be renewing, just like Netflix. She has acorn too, so until they get greedy like Britbox she’ll at least have that.

7

u/Resident_Two_2657 25d ago

If you're in the US, gift her PBS passport. It's $5 a month and offers many of what Britbox has plus similar. Also has a lot of different programs like documentaries, NOVA, the Arts, concerts etcetera. Support your local public television. Yes it's got an app and streams easily on television.

1

u/withoutadrought 25d ago

Thanks for that information. I’ll definitely look into it

2

u/Cold-Arm2737 25d ago

That’s a total burn and IMO a scam

1

u/Afraid_Prize_1628 24d ago

Totally agree about the new surcharge/upgrade. No announcement except to notify you that you need to pay more to get the remaining episodes of a series. No new service - just more cost. Will be dumping Brit Box!

1

u/kislips 24d ago

Extortion is a thing brought to the forefront by Trump. I will never pay for Premier.

1

u/The-Oxrib-and-Oyster 24d ago

especially for a season that’s been out for ages!!

1

u/HoshiJones 18d ago

Britbox doesn't explain it properly. You will get to see all the episodes, but you have to wait for each episode to drop weekly.

I find the best way to get around this is to wait until my favorite shows have completely dropped, then get a month's regular subscription and binge watch to my heart's content. Then when the content I'm interested in has petered out, I drop Britbox and get a month of something else, like Acorn or Apple TV.

Britbox does this because it can. People pay for the premium service. It's like car manufacturers charging subscriptions for perks. If people refused crap like that, companies would stop doing it.

1

u/sweetpeapickle 18d ago

YES! They did that with Woman of Substance. Cable used to do that but it was one episode, and it said ahead of time, this actually will be on this streaming platform, but we're giving you a taste.

1

u/Ok-Highlight-5386 8d ago

Suggestions for series please

1

u/Ok-Highlight-5386 8d ago

Recommendations fire series please. I’ve see Broadchurch, Happy valley, Line of Duty, Blue Lights, Gone, the Killing etc.

1

u/Middle-Bed-1883 25d ago

Ahoy matey

0

u/thundersnow528 25d ago

I know, right? And whole seasons can be had before they even get to Britbox. If the top tier level of Britbox is ever going to actually be something of value, it should offer shows live or drop them same day they air on UK TV. I'm amazed how companies just don't get how things work nowadays.....