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Project Kangaroo dead in the water after competition commision steps in

By Andrew Redfern @ 4th February 2009 5:57 pm

Project Kangaroo, a joint online TV project involving the BBC, ITV and Channel4 appears to be all but finished according to a report in the The Guardian.

The report states that the project has been judged to be too much of a threat to competition in the UK video-on-demand market.

The Competition Commission ruled that none of the suggested prospective remedies went far enough and so has ruled against the joint venture. The parent company is not expected to appeal and it’s thought 50 jobs will be lost.

The Competition Commission report states “After detailed and careful consideration, we have decided that this joint venture would be too much of a threat to competition in this developing market and has to be stopped”

“BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 together control the vast majority of this material, which puts them in a very strong position as wholesalers of TV content to restrict competition from other current and future providers of video-on-demand services to UK viewers”

It’s difficult to see a way back from such a fundamental problem and the Guardian’s article quotes Channel4 as saying “We’re disappointed by this decision. We believe the service as proposed offered clear benefits to British viewers as well as a valuable opportunity for Channel 4. However, VoD currently makes a small contribution to our revenues and the short term effect on our business will be limited. Longer term, VoD still represents an opportunity for growth”

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