Media Guardian Story

Competition concerns over Kangaroo

The Office of Fair Trading has flagged up potential competition concerns with Kangaroo, the on-demand service planned by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
The watchdog is inviting interested parties to comment on the venture, which will be headed by Ashley Highfield, the outgoing BBC director of future media and technology.
The OFT is asking for submissions by May 14. It will then consider whether it has grounds to refer Kangaroo to the Competition Commission for investigation.
Kangaroo is a joint venture between the BBC's commercial division, BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4.
It aims to be a shop window for the three broadcasters' programming, allowing viewers to download digital versions of shows, either for purchase or on an advertising-funded model.
The service will initially be available via the web, with shows available either streamed or to download. However, the ultimate aim is to deliver Kangaroo content direct to televisions.
By pooling the resources of the UK's three leading terrestrial broadcasters, Kangaroo poses a potential threat to Virgin Media, which increasingly sells itself as an on-demand operator, and BSkyB, which also offers on-demand through broadband and the Sky+ box.
One point of controversy for the OFT to investigate is likely to be the relationship between Kangaroo, a commercial enterprise, and the BBC's publicly funded iPlayer, a highly successful on-demand catch-up service.
The BBC Trust has yet to give its approval to Kangaroo, which will need to pass a number of tests including the need to "avoid distorting the market".

Kangaroo are facing competition from Virgin and BSkyB, who are also media giants. These two institutions also offer the same service but already have an on-demand service. BBC, ITV and Ch4 will have Kangaroo to as a venture that will sell itself as an on-demand operator.