Competition Commission 'bouncers' knock-back Kangaroo

[Dave Brown | cross-platform director/producer]

The aggregated VoD service from the BBC, ITV and C4 has been sent back to the drawing board by the Competition Commission.

From the sidelines (for me at least), this appears to be a blinkered decision which fails to recognise that although the BBC, ITV and C4 are major players in the UK …the internet is not a country-wide medium; it’s a cross-border, global medium, with global players. This is something that Sky (one of the companies which complained to the Competition Commission) is of course all too aware of.

Here’s the link to the story on the C4 website:

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/arts_entertainment/film_tv/ca...

[Dave Brown | cross-platform director/producer]

Yeah ...can't say that I know an awful lot about it – perhaps it’s something to do with the licence fee.

The thing is that the existing business model of terrestrial television stations broadcasting to the UK is at the start of a painful/exciting transition. The internet delivers a globalisation of television that national broadcasters and UK regulators surely can't prevent. So the way I see it, the Competition Commission is handicapping the BBC/ITV/C4, which in turn will clear the way for other providers to take a dominant position, and in the long-run disadvantage the ‘Kangaroo 3’.

Bit short-sighted, but I guess there must be some explanation.

Anyone?

[David Hamill]

I have to agree. Having had the pleasure of working on the iPlayer project, I couldn't help wondering how much better it would be just to be able to get all the terrestrials channels from one place.

This issue is about british TV in competition with the world not intercompetition within the UK. The channels involved with Kangaroo actually make a lot of programmes not just by them in from the states.