Launch of Kangaroo VOD service delayed again

by Fiona Ramsay, Marketing 03-Oct-08, 16:34

LONDON - The launch of video-on-demand service Kangaroo will be delayed until at least next February after the Competition Commission moved back the publication of its final report on the service.

The Competition Commission said its report on the joint-venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV is to be prepared and published by 8 February.

The deadline was moved from December to allow the companies involved to supply the Competition Commission with information to back up their case.

The new service, which plans to offer catch-up and archive TV programmes, and whose chief executive is former BBC executive Ashley Highfield, was referred by the OFT to the Competition Commission in June. The development of Kangaroo - also codenamed See-Saw - has been put on hold until the outcome has been resolved.

Although rivals to the service have raised concerns that the service would give the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 too much dominance in the video-on-demand sector, others have vocally defended the launch.

Andrew Warmsley, co-founder of digital agency i-level, said: 'In the US they would be beating the drum for such a service. I am amazed and baffled we are not here. This delay for a year might as well be forever in this industry. The regulators are standing in the way of the developing environment for media companies.'