Can you watch soaps on BritBox?

The simple answer is yes, BritBox is known for having classic British soaps you can watch, with the view introducing these soaps to a global audience, including the US market.

BritBox was introduced in 2017 as the strongest competitor to the popular English paid subscription video-on-demand platform, Acorn TV. But BritBox quickly asserted itself as a unique entity catering to a niche market in terms of the content in its library.

Though this success can be partially attributed to the service having classic British television shows like Doctor Who, it was also the fact that the streaming service has classic soaps including the likes of the longest-running soap in the history of television, Coronation Street, and other classic soaps like EastEnders and Hollyoaks.

Why does BritBox have classic soaps?

BritBox is a paid subscription video-on-demand streaming service which, when it was introduced, was backed by BBC Studios and ITV.

As such, the streaming service had access to all the classic programming from both the leading English networks, which happened to include most of the classic soapies from the UK, which have kept new and old viewers of the soaps enthralled as more and more of the world is introduced to them through the continued expansion and popularity of BritBox.

Can you watch soaps on BritBox?

Yes, you can watch soaps on BritBox. One of the advantages of being able to watch the soapies on BritBox is that you can watch the soap from its first episode and see the progression to how it eventually got to introduce the characters that now helm the soaps.

Another advantage of watching soapies via BritBox is that US citizens get access to the latest episode of their favourite English soap just hours after it airs on its respective television network.

However, BritBox officially suggests that the soapies are available a day after its television premiere.

This is as a precautionary measure, since, depending on which region you are in, there might be a slight delay in hours of the availability of the soap’s episode.

Similarly, some soaps are not available in some regions due to content licensing restrictions. However, that does not mean that the classic soapies and the most popular soaps are not available across the US.

As such, you can watch the classic show that started it all, Coronation Street, the beloved classic of EastEnders, or the “new kid on the block” when it comes to English soapies and how long it has been running compared to the aforementioned, Hollyoaks.

However, there are other honourable mentions including Emmerdale and Casualty which are also available to watch on BritBox.

1. Coronation Street

Coronation Street is historically the longest-running soap in the history of television. The show first premiered in 1960, over six decades ago, and the soap shows no signs of stopping.

On ITV, the soap has a three-times-a-week broadcasting schedule every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with well over 10 542 episodes in its canon currently.

The last episode was on Monday, 26 September 2022, and it was premised, “James says farewell to Weatherfield, the bullies return for Max and Summer and Aaron gets into trouble after doing some baking, but it’s not all as it seems…”

2. EastEnders

Similarly to Coronation Street, EastEnders is also another classic show that first premiered in 1985 and that is still running.

Moreover, it also focuses on the lives and times of the people that live in Albert Square, which is a traditional Victorian square of terrace houses that surround a park in the East End of London’s Walford borough, which is where the soapie borrows the inspiration of its name from.

EastEnders is a BBC One classic, instead of airing on ITV in the UK. It airs every week between Monday and Thursday, with reruns airing on Saturdays and Sundays, which means that you can watch the soap between Tuesday and Friday on BritBox.

3. Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks is the youngest of the soapies, which makes for an ideal watch on BritBox.

The soapie might be the youngest on the list but it initially premiered in 1995 and is set to reach its 5 000 episode milestone soon as it currently has 4 531 episodes and counting. It is a Channel 4 soap which airs episodes every week between Monday and Friday.

Hollyoaks started with the premise of focusing on the lives and times of a group of teenagers who have grown with the characters as they continue to navigate adulting in the almost two decades of the beloved classic.