As predicted in this blog some time ago, the joint BBC/Channel 4/ITV internet TV joint venture, Kangaroo, has fallen foul of regulators and is unlikely to appear until later in 2009, if at all.
I think that it is fair an right that this has been referred. It will, without doubt, be the pre-eminent internet TV service in the UK and will therefore have leverage with advertisers, but more than anything will have 'discover' tied up. To gain any kind of audience channel operators will need to be on this service, which will in turn add to the influence of Kangaroo.
The overall landscape of television in the UK is up in the air with OFCOM clearly about to take some of the BBC's tax money and use it to fund other public service broadcasting initiatives, although this, at the moment, largely seems to mean subsidising the channel that broadcasts Big Brother.
The problem, and the opportunity, with this impasse is that it allows others to make a move and take a part of the marketplace. But who is in a position to take the opportunity. Perhaps Blinkx' purchase of online ad engine Miva is an indication. And in all of this, the long tail is being neglected.
I think that it is fair an right that this has been referred. It will, without doubt, be the pre-eminent internet TV service in the UK and will therefore have leverage with advertisers, but more than anything will have 'discover' tied up. To gain any kind of audience channel operators will need to be on this service, which will in turn add to the influence of Kangaroo.
The overall landscape of television in the UK is up in the air with OFCOM clearly about to take some of the BBC's tax money and use it to fund other public service broadcasting initiatives, although this, at the moment, largely seems to mean subsidising the channel that broadcasts Big Brother.
The problem, and the opportunity, with this impasse is that it allows others to make a move and take a part of the marketplace. But who is in a position to take the opportunity. Perhaps Blinkx' purchase of online ad engine Miva is an indication. And in all of this, the long tail is being neglected.
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