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.
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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...
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.
According to a report in the Guardian ITV are to be putting a range of classic shows on iTunes, the Apple download service. Shows are to be priced at £1.89 per episode with the option of downloading an entire series.
If you've read our review of ITV's Catch Up service this is welcome news. The service is plagued by bad design and the inability to download the shows of offer. ITV is obviously not putting its trust in its own platform and putting their faith in the big boy of download services. Either way, more content available online, no matter how it's delivered is always a good thing!
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?
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