BBC, ITV and Channel 4 see Project Kangaroo delayed!

Project Kangaroo, the next-generation web TV service being planned by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 has been delayed while the Competition Commission takes a closer look at it.

We had expected the service, which will serve up on-demand shows from all three broadcasters through a single website, to go live in the fourth quarter of the year, but now the competition watchdog says it needs more time, and information, before it can give it the go ahead.

The CC has announced it is “extending the timetable for the inquiry whilst it awaits important information on details of the joint venture, which are still being negotiated by the parties.”

Specifically, the regulator wants more information on the “competitive effects of the joint venture.”

It’s expecting that information to be handed over in early September, before releasing its initial findings in November. A full report is then due in “mid-January 2009” meaning we won’t be settling down to shows through Kangaroo until well into the new year.

Expressing frustration at the delay, ITV’s executive chairman Michael Grade said: “While I understand that the Office of Fair Trading is carrying out its statutory obligations, there is a serious problem with a regulatory framework that seems unable to take the most important interest into account - that of British viewers… As digital distribution gathers pace, we want to make our content available for free to online users in the most accessible way through Kangaroo.

“This venture has been delayed by a reference to the Competition Commission, at the very same time that non-UK companies like Google and Apple are free to build market dominating positions online in the UK without so much as a regulatory murmur.”

Out 2009 | £free | BBC, ITV, Channel 4 (via Distorted Loop)

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