Kangaroo slaughtered by Competition Commission – joint BBC, ITV and C4 online TV service axed

Gary Cutlack Computers, Intellectual Property, Internet, TVs, Web 2.0, Websites
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project-kangaroo-axed.jpgProject Kangaroo, the planned online telly service that would’ve combined BBC, ITV and Channel 4 content on one handy site for your viewing pleasure, has been binned.

The EVIL denier of free TV is the Competition Commission which has, incredibly, decided that it would be unfair of the Beeb, ITV and C4 to team up as this might damage rival commercial companies that operating in the same “space” – despite the fact that the rival commercial companies routinely allow their users to steal BBC’s, ITV’s and Channel 4’s content, whack their own advertising over it and pass it off as their own…

“The real losers from this decision are British consumers,” the Project Kangaroo triumvirate said in a sadness-tinged statement. “This is a disproportionate remedy and a missed opportunity in the further development of British broadcasting.”

Shocking news indeed. So it’s back to the Holy Trinity of online telly, then – iPlayer, Bittorrent and low-grade YouTube clips. Perhaps this will at least encourage Channel 4 to make 4OD actually work.

(Via The Times)

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Gary Cutlack
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7 comments

  • That was quite an insensitive thing of me to say, then, seeing as we’re now living in Austerity Britain.

  • So much for the excitement around Digital Britain. However, there are a number of good websites for telly already – I use tv.blinkx.com. It usually has everything I’m looking for.

  • Quite staggeringly stupid – the companies actually agree a good standard between themselves and a quango steps in to kill it.
    And yeah, 4OD does suck.

    • 4OD is a national disgrace. I’ve tried to get it working at least three times and it’s just literally broken. It literally does not work. It makes me lose sympathy for C4 and hope the government makes it partner with Channel 5 as punishment.

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