UK On-Demand TV Blocked in Favour of Competition

The Competition Commission recently blocked a plan by the UK’s top three broadcasters to offer an on-demand video service.  Known as Project Kangaroo, the partnership between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV would have made both current and archived shows from the three channels available on-demand.

Peter Freeman, chairman of the Competition Commission felt that video on-demand (VOD) is a new and exciting medium; however the Commission also felt that a partnership between BBC Worldwide, ITV & Channel 4, who collectively control most of the UK’s television programmes, would stop other on demand video services from developing.1

Neither the BBC, ITV, nor Channel 4 had plans to replace their individual catch up services with this project. Rumoured to have been called SeeSaw2, this video on-demand service would allow users to purchase programmes from a large back catalogue, which would contain the BBC archive along with current programmes from ITV & C4.

The Kangaroo Project was referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading in June 2008 on the grounds that “the platform could become too powerful” 3. In December 2008 the Commission deemed the project would “harm competition” 4 and in February 2009, the Commission blocked the proposal as they felt it posed “too much of a threat to competition.” 1

The three broadcasters commented in a joint statement “the real losers from this decision are British consumers.”   However, Streaming Tank’s Managing Director, James Wilkinson had this to say: “We whole heartedly agree with the Commissions decision. If this project went ahead it would have made it very difficult for smaller, independent video streaming providers such as us to gain any sort of exposure.”

In the past the British public have benefited from the competition between the BBC, ITV & C4. This proposed partnership would have created a force to be reckoned with rather than a service which would have benefited both video streaming providers and consumers. Both the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission have ensured that a level playing field has been maintained.

<< Back