Kangaroo’s future in doubt ahead of deadline

Thu Jan 8 2009, 09:52 AM UTC

In the latest blow to the joint video-on-demand venture by ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide, internet TV platform, Babelgum, is calling for Kangaroo to be scrapped. The objection comes to light just two weeks after Kangaroo said its partners would sell content separately to third-party rivals in an effort to appease regulatory concerns.

In a submission to the Competition Commission, published this week, Babelgum claims that putting a complete block on the project, "is the only remedy which both adequately addresses all the competition concerns raised by the Commission and results in the lowest costs to third parties and/or the market". It also claims that imposing restrictions on the project would "require monitoring and policing on an ongoing basis".

The document, which was drawn up last month, comes in response to the Competition Commission's provisional findings, and is one of seven formal third-party submissions published by the regulatory body to date.

While a submission by Virgin Media drew similar conclusions to Babelgum, a number of letters from members of the public defend Kangaroo, with one commentator claiming it offers a "single, simple solution for viewers".

Responding itself to the provisional December findings - in which the commission branded Kangaroo anti-competitive - the BBC recently offered to scrap plans to jointly sell programmes, arguing this would address concerns.

In its proposal, submitted just before Christmas, Kangaroo's partners said that each channel would separately sell its seven-day, catch-up content to rival VoD broadcasters. The partners also said they would not sell archived programmes on a joint basis, and that each partner could set their own prices for selling content direct to consumers.

However, ITV, BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 said they would abandon the project if the commission tried to impose two other proposed amendments to the venture.

The first of these proposals would force the partners to give access to other companies by jointly selling content on a regulated and "non-discriminatory basis". The other was a content-rights amendment, which would see all VoD rights for programmes made by independent companies, revert to that producer after the initial period of seven days.

"The parties do not consider that entering into the joint venture would be commercially viable if either of those remedies were adopted, and would not proceed with the joint venture in such circumstances," reads the Project Kangaroo submission.

The fallout from the regulatory dispute has caused some commentators to speculate that Kangaroo will not go ahead and that the BBC will instead pursue its plan to share its iPlayer technology with its UK TV rivals. The broadcaster proposed the move last month as part of a separate spate of public service proposals, designed to safeguard the license fee following the digital switchover in 2012.

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