Project kangaroo was pronounced dead in February after the Competition Commission decided it would create a monopoly.
However, the technology still exists and is up for sale.
It now looks like the mobile phone company Orange is set to buy it in order to boost its European Orange TV effort.
Project Kangaroo
There was huge buzz last year surrounding Project Kangaroo, a new online video-on-demand service from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4. This joint venture between Britain’s three most popular broadcasters was intended to bring online video to the masses and become a one-stop shop in a similar vein to Hulu in the States.
Unfortunately, in its wisdom, the Competition Commission decided to kill the venture stone dead after it received complaints from rival broadcasters, namely BSkyB and Virgin Media. The reasoning behind the effective banning of the project was that it would threaten competition to too great a degree when the market is still emerging.
The BBC, ITV, and Channel 4
It’s left the three broadcasters having to go it alone. The BBC obviously has the iPlayer, ITV has ITV.com, and Channel 4 has 4oD. Individually these services are deemed fine but attempt to mesh them altogether to benefit both the broadcasters and the public and all of a sudden it’s a monopoly.
The three broadcasters spent about £20 million ($30 million) developing the technology required for this joint service. Which is now useless to all of them. But there is nothing to stop an outside source from using the technology in a similar way and so the partners have been actively seeking a buyer.
Orange Saviors
According to The Guardian newspaper, Orange has now emerged as the most likely buyer, albeit one that is likely to pay a fraction of the costs involved in developing the technology in the first place. There is also an unnamed technology firm thought to be interested in picking up the assets of the doomed project.
A spokesman for Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, said:
“We are examining this company and we see of course that it could be interesting. Nothing has been decided but we can confirm we are examining it.”
“On Orange TV we are very cautious about what we are saying in the UK but it [Kangaroo] could help us in developing more quickly Orange TV projects in France.”
The Future Is Orange
The company has an Orange TV broadband service across Europe, and in France it is immensely popular, with over 1 million subscribers. Orange has already outlined plans to extend its set-top box-based offering to include Web television and it seems as though the remnants of Project Kangaroo could provide a solution.
Orange wants to become a major player in the home entertainment market but for now, given the current economic conditions, is stalling from launching a similar service to the French one in the UK.
ITV and Hulu In Talks
Meanwhile, with the disappointment of Project Kangaroo being canned still casting a black cloud at ITV, there are claims the company has held talks with Hulu about the possibility of a joint venture between the two in the UK.
Assuming NBC and News Corp. wanted to push ahead with the plans, I do wonder what the Competition Commission would have to say about it. After all, Hulu is already huge in the States and a push to launch in the UK with ITV’s help would surely threaten competition in the same way Project Kangaroo would have done.
