After failing to find either a buyer or investment partner Arqiva has decided to pull the plug on SeeSaw, its online video catch-up service that struggled to find its niche. No great surprise really, but it’s still disappointing.
SeeSaw Shuts
SeeSaw is shutting, with owner Arqiva announcing as much with a short message posted on Friday (May 27). It read:
“As it will soon be ‘goodbye’ from Seesaw, we’d like to take this opportunity to say a big ‘thanks’ for all your support, custom and loyalty over the last 16 months. We’re a small team but we hope we’ve made a big difference and that you’ve had fun watching TV with us.”
Arqiva set SeeSaw in motion from the ashes of Project Kangaroo, purchasing the infrastructure from the BBC and its partners for around £8 million.
Often referred to as the British Hulu (because the real British Hulu failed to materialize) SeeSaw has only made it to the 16-month mark before being shuttered. Which has to be seen as a warning to other companies seeking to launch similar services.
Lack Of Support
While Seesaw did have some similarities to Hulu – designed as a one-stop shop for online video content from a range of broadcasters being the main one – it never secured current content in the way Hulu did. While some Channel 4 programming was cross-posted to both, the BBC and Five only really offered archive content, with current content generally limited to the networks’ own on-demand services.
I have used SeeSaw from time to time over the past 15 months, especially for past seasons of shows I’ve got into recently. Only the day before Arqiva announced it was shutting up shop I began watching the first season of Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle on SeeSaw after catching the second season on BBC2.
There was nothing inherently wrong with SeeSaw as a service apart from the fact that (I’m assuming) not enough people were using it and not enough money was being generated to make it worth continuing. Although there were premium options there was nothing like Hulu Plus, and not really the content to support anything as ambitious.
Conclusions
I consider the demise of SeeSaw as a saddening if not slightly predictable one. Archive content is all fine and well but people generally want to watch brand new content. And the TV networks would rather control the way that is watched online themselves. Which suggests there is no place for this kind of service.
