Oh, Kangaroo, will you ever see the light of day? Or will you be permanently vaporware?
Kangaroo has come up against another set of problems. The joint venture between BBC ITV and Channel 4 has been referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading. And this is before it has even been seen on a computer screen anywhere.
In a statement, the OFT said ...
"In reaching its decision, the OFT carefully considered all evidence as to whether the joint venture would face enough competition from other sources."
"While it is easy to speculate about what different UK viewers might do if the joint venture charged a higher price, there was a lack of good evidence available on these issues."
If this is the sort of problems kangaroo faces before it is available, I dread to think what will happen when or if it ever launches.
[Link]
A new updated version of the BBC's hugely successful iPlayer is just "weeks away" and will add radio and personalisation.
The news came at Broadcast's Digital Channels Conference from BBC head of digital media technology Anthony Rose.
"In a few weeks time, we are going live with an all new iPlayer that has radio and TV all in the same interface," he said.
The recommendations will be based on genres and include an Amazon style "people who liked that, liked this".
Rose said that different personalisation techniques will be tested over the next two to three months and will then "have a shoot-out" to decide which are adopted (Why not just use a combination of all the several different techniques available, a la Sky? - Ed).
Broadcast magazine said Individual users on shared computers will be able to protect and build on their own profile with a personal log in, possibly by selecting an avatar. Rose predicted that a lot of the scheduling for these genre clusters will be done by computer but said there will always be a need for human schedulers.
"The endgame is that the linear scheduler isn't quite dead yet. Long live the online scheduler," he said.
As yet there's no word on whether they'll be keeping the delightful black and pink or upping the encoding rates.
BT Vision is asking customers to pay for on-demand BBC content freely available on the iPlayer.
The company has contacted subscribers saying that BBC VoD programmes will now incur a charge as part of its paid for service, the TV Replay Pack.
Previously, users could watch BBC VoD content for free.
BT says it always planned to charge for the programmes but was prevented from doing so by a technical problem. It's always had paid-for on-demand access to Channel 4 content, which is also freely available online.
The BBC isn't making any money on the deal though. A BBC spokeswoman said the move by BT meets with the corporation's demand that content is always made available under the cheapest possible subscription package.
"In line with other TV platforms where BBC programmes are made available on demand, the BBC requires that all public service content should be accessible via the lowest cost subscription tier, which in this case, is BT Replay," she said.
There's a very interesting pice on the iPlayer in today's Media Guardian by the paper's former TV critic Gareth McLean. It's well worth a read in full.
And he's right - the iPlayer is changing the way that we all watch, consume and enjoy TV - and not just BBC programmes either.
While Sky Player, 4OD and (snigger) ITV.com are in competition with the iPlayer, they are also benefitting from the huge marketing muscle that was put behind the launch of the iPlayer (ok, the third launch of the iPlayer - but then nothng really works until version 3 anyway...). Every single BBC show on every BBC channel had an iPlayer promo. Perhaps someone who's a media buyer could put a value on that advertising for us - I certainly can't even begin to.
What the BBC has done in launching the iPlayer is shift the public consciousness. TV on demand, on a computer, in bed on a laptop, on the train on my iPod is now easy, convenient and fun (and not difficult, techie and hard). This is VoD for all of us however we chose to live our lives.
Gareth asks what's next for the iPlayer. The question should really be, what's next for the market that the iPlayer has created? And because here at Download Monkey we always like to come up with the answers to the questions you're asking, and while we already have reviews of the major VoD services, we're currently busy doing a head to head of the big key VoD players. We'll be looking mainly at the the things that we think now matter - ease of use, quality of picture and content available.
We'll try and make it as easy as possible to see at a glance which service it's right for you - ie: should you be spending any of your precious time even bothering with it? Because Gareth, that's where we go next with this. Mainstream...
A new study from ABI Research forecasts the number of viewers who access video via the Web to nearly quadruple in the next few years, reaching at least one billion in 2013.
One Billion...that's a LOT of people.
“The rapid expansion of broadband video creates opportunities across a number of market sectors,” comments senior analyst Cesar Bachelet. “A wide variety of actors aim to gain a share of this fast-growing market: not only content owners such as the BBC and NBC Universal, and Internet portals such as AOL and Yahoo!, but also a range of new entrants including user-generated content sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion, broadband video sites such as CinemaNow and Lovefilm, and Internet TV providers such as Apple and Zattoo.”
[Link]
So, Sky Anytime is now SkyPlayer.
Is this a shameless cash in on the iPlayers ubiquitous status as the nations most well known streaming and download service? They do sound pretty similar don't they...
There may be some ulterior motives behind the similar names besides the obvious cash in, as there may be some BBC content available on the SkyPlayer. Broadcast Now has revealed that Sky and the Beeb may be in talks to host BBC content on the SkyPlayer.
Sk-i-player anyone?
STOP PRESS: Kangaroo is now "SeeSaw..."
We say: One crap name is a mistake. TWO crap names smacks of carelessness.
Anywho...
According to a report in the Guardian today - Kangaroo, the massive Internet TV joint venture between BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 is set to launch in September or October. Well, thats what the bosses are "Currently hoping"
On the subject ITV's Chief Operating Officer John Cresswell says..
"It is going really well. Ashley's (Highfield - Chief Executive of Kangaroo from July 1st) appointment is fantastic. With all new technical launches, you always have a soft launch before you unveil the whole thing,"
Which means they'll be beta testing it for quite a while.
Our friends across the pond can finally get their hands on the BBC's content online through iTunes. With the iPlayer only available to us licence payers its great to see the Beeb freeing its programming to the rest of the world for the low price of $1.99 per episode. Although it is getting a little confusing keeping track of whose content is available where. Lets see...BBC on iPlayer, iTunes, Wii and Kangaroo (soon) and ITV on Catch Up, iTunes and Kangaroo (soon) it'll be hard to move through the Internet without bumping into some kind of downloadable show...
[Link]
Despite big talk and lofty ambition, Kangaroo - the download service operated by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 is stuck in developmental quagmire, reports from the Guardian claim. An insider is reported as saying - "Imagine the most difficult joint venture deal you've ever been involved with, and multiply by three!" A service operated by three broadcasters with years of rivalry behind them has some difficulty? I am not surprised.
Also there are worries from the independant content creators and rights owners on whether they will be properly paid for their work.
Ofcom could see the whole operation as a cartel and shut it down or scale it back.
Not particularly rosy news for Kangaroo.
Will it work? Or will it be a disaster on the scale of Waterworld?
Over at UpYourEgo they've written a great post about what happens when the free download services fail. People don't just give up on finding the content. They just go to less legal methods.
"I heard one episode on BBC 7 once and never got to hear the rest. I searched Aubible, I e-mailed Audible, I searched the web and contacted the BBC - in the end I accepted all legal avenues had been explored and started on the less than legal ones." [Link]
So, is the key to beating the pirates having more content on offer than they do?
New 'Must See' review up! The Download Monkey goes head to head with the Business Hedgehog - Sir Alan Sugar in The Apprentice. Any good? Take a look, and have your say.
Great news about the iPlayer coming to the Wii.
"The video download and streaming service that lets people catch up with BBC programmes will soon be a channel on the hugely popular game console."
[BBC News]
Its great to see the BBC making its content availble on as many formats as possible. Give it a few months and you will be able to watch last nights The Apprentice on your toaster. Still a shame there isn't more classic content available though.