MAIN UK BROADCASTERS PLAN SINGLE ACCESS POINT FOR ONLINE VIEWERS
A joint venture between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 may lead to the launch this year of a unique new IPTV service that offers broadband users more than 10,000 hours of viewing.
Code-named ‘Project Kangaroo’, the concept will offer a faster and simpler route to video-on-demand services than is currently available. The plan is for viewers to access a singe online portal via their PC or laptop that delivers a wide choice current and archived programmes from all three broadcasters. The content will be available both as downloads and by streaming, some of it free, some by subscription and some for outright purchase.
A NEW PLATFORM IS EMERGING
Currently awaiting approval by the BBC Trust, the boards of the other two channels and the Office of Fair Trading, it’s understood that the Project Kangaroo web player will run in parallel with the broadcasters’ existing on-demand internet channels: ITV.com, Channel 4oD and the latest arrival – BBC’s iPlayer service – that launched in December 2007. According to the BBC’s Press Office*, in the first two weeks of the new service, viewers accessed over 3.5 million programmes from a choice of 250, showing an eight to one preference for streamed content over downloaded content. The BBC is now aiming to have at least 500,000 iPlayer users on board by the end of next month.
Since first announcing Project Kangeroo at the end of last year, the tripartite alliance has been cagey about how their plans are progressing. But as online viewing figures already show, UK broadband subscribers are already keenly embracing the potential of this alternative delivery medium to capture their favourite TV programmes.
* Source: BBC Press Office (15 January 2008)
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