BSkyB, Virgin and online only service Joost have submitted a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading over the proposed video service kangaroo (hang on, isn't this called SeeSaw now?) Mike Volpi, chief executive of Joost had this to say on the matter...
"When you have a situation where so much good content ends up being potentially exclusive through a single distribution channel, it makes it very difficult for any player outside of those three to be competitive in the UK market."
Is Kangaroo doomed? Is it vaporware? Or will it be a storming success? Who knows...
[Link]
Ashley Highfield, outgoing director of BBC future technology and incoming Head of Kangaroo/SeeSaw has announced that more than 75 million viewers have downloaded programs from the BBC iPlayer since it launched at Christmas.
That is a lot of people!
Talking at the Google Zeitgeist forum (Where was our invite...?) he also said there had been 21 million download requests in April, up from 17 million in March.
Huge success. Oh yes.
[Link]
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.