Kangaroo's demise will put users in control

12 February 2009

So the Competition Commission has blocked BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4’s Kangaroo venture (nma.co.uk 4 February 2009). The broadcasters argued that they needed to work together to provide a compelling consumer service and to grow the video-on-demand market, but the commissioners have ruled any potential benefit is outweighed by a substantial lessening of competition in the UK market.

Focus groups have shown time and again that what users want is a single place to find all of the online TV content they’re interested in. But the idea of the broadcasters aggregating it themselves seemed a step too far. Google does a good job of providing a single access point for web content without the need to host it all and control ecommerce.

In essence, it’s the old walled garden versus open market analogy, with Kangaroo planning a walled garden of online TV content from the major broadcasters. We’ve seen this all before, with CompuServe, AOL and the mobile operators, and in each case the benefits have been short-lived and the market has pushed towards a competitive environment.

In the open-market approach, each of the broadcasters will continue to put their own programming online, much as they are now. ITV.com and the BBC iPlayer are both seeing phenomenal traffic levels, so they’re unlikely to suffer greatly from the blocking of Kangaroo, and it’ll be up to third parties like What’s On TV’s TV Replay to provide the links to these services in a way users find friendly.

Of course, it’s a blow to the broadcasters to have their project blocked, and it certainly gives them less control. But since when has the internet ever given anyone except the user control?