Project Kangaroo, the joint VoD (Video on Demand) venture with the BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4, was bounced out last week by the Competition Commission (CC).

Project Kangaroo was intended to be a 'one-stop shop' where UK viewers could watch missed programmes using a single portal, instead of having to visit different websites or install a variety of software, plus provide an archive service of TV show footage mainly funded by advertisers. It would have been free to viewers.

However the BBC, ITV and Channel 4’s plan to join forces and tap into the small but expanding VoD market whilst benefiting from ad revenue, did not go to plan….

After a lengthy investigation by the Competition Commission since last November, their final conclusion was that the proposed service was too much of a threat to competition in the developing VoD market, with Peter Freeman CC Chairman telling BBC Radio 5 Live last week ‘The three joint venture partners are the largest TV companies in this country and you would normally expect them to compete with each other on a thing like this.’

Freeman went on to say ‘BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 together control the vast majority of this material, which puts them in a very strong position as wholesalers of TV content to restrict competition from other current and future providers of video-on-demand services to UK viewers’.

In response to the decision, the broadcasters said in a joint statement: ‘While this is an unwelcome finding for the shareholders, the real losers from this decision are British consumers. The spokesperson continued ‘This is a disproportionate remedy and a missed opportunity in the further development of British broadcasting.’

How will it affect our consumption of online video? Almost not at all is the likely answer. Our appetite for watching broadcast content online has been steadily increasing in recent years. The combination of faster connection and download speeds in our homes and workplace means we’re hardly ever tempted to hit the X on the browser because of buffering. So for now, we’ll just keep going to iPlayer or Channel 4’s watch again service, not one big uberplayer website.

Meanwhile, broadcasters are offering more and more traditional programming through online channels, not just the trusty tellybox in the living room corner. And brands are tuning into the reality that getting through to key audiences means producing cracking video content to captivate the discerning web user i.e. the vast majority of adults in the UK.

So while this is a temporary setback for the world of VoD, the future is still online.