Astounding news from the UK that the three major channel providers are working together on a video player called Kangaroo. This is quite extraordinary, but considering that two of the three organizations are, at least theoretically, public service broadcasters, perhaps this is not so surprising.
I've regularly moaned about the major broadcasters in the UK, but cannot praise them highly enough for this latest move.
I'm reposting my overview of the internet TV industry and you can directly see the significance of this.
Of course, it's not unique. Hulu is brokering a similar path in the US.
This approach is going to be particularly valuable to advertisers, who are now being provided with more cohesive, aggregated advertising opportunities.
The battle remains to be that to become the default interface or service for online users. The question for the smaller player is, will the big three allow others to join the party ?
However, it's bad news for Sky, Virgin Media and, potentially even Freeview.
The reality is that channel operators are ganging up and becoming distributors and existing distributors are going to find their relative oligopoly usurped.
I've regularly moaned about the major broadcasters in the UK, but cannot praise them highly enough for this latest move.
I'm reposting my overview of the internet TV industry and you can directly see the significance of this.
Of course, it's not unique. Hulu is brokering a similar path in the US.
This approach is going to be particularly valuable to advertisers, who are now being provided with more cohesive, aggregated advertising opportunities.
The battle remains to be that to become the default interface or service for online users. The question for the smaller player is, will the big three allow others to join the party ?
However, it's bad news for Sky, Virgin Media and, potentially even Freeview.
The reality is that channel operators are ganging up and becoming distributors and existing distributors are going to find their relative oligopoly usurped.
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