BritBox UK MD Will Harrison is to depart having led the streamer’s UK operation since its 2019 launch, as ITV gears up to roll out ITVX.
Harrison will not be replacing him. This news comes a week after ITV, a major shareholder, announced that it would be folding BritBox into its forthcoming AVoD/SVoD ITVX. Although the BBC has sold its BritBox UK minority share to ITV, BBC Studios and ITV continue to operate BritBox International in North America.
Once subsumed by ITVX, BritBox UK will fall within the remit of Rufus Radcliffe, ITV’s Managing Director of Streaming.
BritBox UK was launched in 2019 and Harrison joined to oversee the commercial and strategy. Since then, Harrison has amassed 733,000 subscribers. He has also commissioned many originals, such as the Spitting Imagereboot, Irvine Welsh’sCrimeCush Jumbo-starring The Beast Must Go.
He is a former MD of film and TV investor Ingenious Media MD and was previously the Chief Commercial Officer of the Warner Bros’ Harry Potter franchise
“Will has played an outstanding role building up BritBox’s strong UK subscriber base,”Radcliffe stated. “As the service moves into the next phase of its evolution as part of ITVX, Will has chosen to explore new opportunities and we wish him every success in the future.“
Harrison stated that he is “grateful to the entire BritBox team for all they have achieved.”