Competition regulator kyboshes Project Kangaroo
BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4's web video on demand plans were sunk by competition regulators this morning, who said their proposed joint venture "Project Kangaroo" would have too much market power.
In its final report on the proposal, the Competition Commission said Project Kangaroo would have control over too much of the original television produced in the UK.
Peter Freeman, chairman of the Competition Commission said: "Without this venture, BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 would be close competitors of each other. We thought that viewers would benefit from better [video on demand] services if the parties — possibly in conjunction with other new and/or already established providers of VOD — competed with each other."
In their preliminary findings in December, regulators suggested ways to ameliorate the potential anti-competitive effects of the venture. Today's decision means none of the measures, including forcing Project Kangaroo to supply competitiors with proramming on a price-controlled wholesale basis, was found strong enough.
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a bit frustrating in light of last weeks excitement around the Digital Britain report. Although - there are already a couple of decent websites for telly out there - tv.blinkx.com is good - or ovguide.com.