Metropol

Project Kangaroo punctured by Competition Commission

The future of Project Kangaroo, the online TV joint venture between ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide, hangs in the balance after the Competition Commission determined that it would restrict competition in the UK video-on-demand market.

However, the Competition Commission, announcing provisional conclusions ahead of the February 8 deadline for a final report, provided some relief for the Kangaroo partners concluding that the venture would not substantially lessen competition for online advertising or content acquisition.

"We are concerned that the loss of rivalry between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, who are normally regarded as close competitors, could restrict existing and future competition for video-on-demand," said Peter Freeman, the Competition Commission chairman.

The Competition Commission has published a consultation outlining possible remedies to address the competition issue.

These include looking at remedies to control the way content is offered to other providers and making "material modifications" to the structure of the joint venture.

An example given is "adjusting the scope of the joint venture's activities or the terms of exclusivity between the joint venture and its parent.."

In the event that none of these are effective "prohibition would also be an option".

Kangaroo is what? An online TV portal like iPlayer, or something more akin or iTunes where you purchase?

Seems a little redundant in light of the developments that the BBC and C4 have made on their own.

nodnirG kraM wrote:I think 4 was going to discontinue their on-demand service once Kangaroo got off the ground, but iPlayer would run it alongside. My understanding was that it would be browser based rather than a separate application like iTunes, but its structure would be similar to that of iTunes with regard to content purchase alongside freebies.

Purchasing content just doesn't work for me. I would rather see it wrapped in ads than be shelling out a quid an episode for archive material.

Virgin's TV on Demand is "free" with the XL package of channels, so why would I want to pay for another type of delivery stream?

They're trying to put the genie back in the bottle here, and I don't see it being successful - unless of course hordes of sheeple jump on the bandwagon like they did with DRM riddled proprietary iTunes.

This notion of "it's only 79p!" only works for people too dumb to add up what a couple of hundred times that figure comes to over the course of the year.