The regulatory hurdles facing Kangaroo, the UK version of Hulu, seem to have frustrated former BBC Head of Digital Stuff, Ashley Highfield, who was ostensibly in charge of the new service, and he has decamped to Microsoft's MSN.
The odds against Kangaroo being the all encompassing service it purported to be seem to have lengthened and Microsoft may be a safe port in the current recessionary storm, but it is an opportunity missed.
Microsoft will never re-invent itself in the online guise it knows it needs to adopt without new vision and leadership, and being the captain of an outlying and minor part of this American behemoth is likely to prove a salutary lesson in following the bottom dollar.
But Ashley does have a leader's ability in surrounding himself with smart people and, who knows, if the fortunes of MSN can be turned around in the UK, the tail might end up wagging the dog.
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