Kangaroo was the working title for a proposedvideo on demand platform offering content fromBBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of theBBC),Itv.com andChannel 4's4oD (collectively UK VOD LLP), initially expected to launch in 2008, but blocked by theCompetition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority) in 2009.[1][2]
Following the commission's rejection of the bid, the technology platform was put up for sale, and the broadcasters then moved on toProject Canvas andYouView, and later toBritBox. The project was bought by Arqiva for about £8 million on 23 July 2009,[3] promising to launch in the 'coming months'.[4] It was launched asSeeSaw in February 2010 but was shut down in October 2011.
Unlike theBBC iPlayer, which is funded through thelicence fee and has no plans to carry any paid content, Kangaroo would have allowed users to purchase content from a large back catalogue. As noted below, the plan to link to content onBBC iPlayer means that it would have provided a single broadband VOD service for the key three broadcasters in the UK. Kangaroo was the project name; the final name and brand of the service was never announced, but it was believed it would have been known asSeeSaw.[2]
The three networks behind the project would continue to offer content independently of the service, withITV plc and Channel 4 planning to offer catch up services through their own websites, and the BBC saying that it will not replace the iPlayer, but content from the iPlayer would be "listed within" the new service.[5] However, it was expected that 4oD would be subsumed into Kangaroo.[6]
It was announced on 14 April 2008 thatAshley Highfield, Director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC, had been appointed the CEO of Kangaroo.[7] Highfield left the project in November 2008, to work for Microsoft.[8]
On 30 June 2008, the UK'sOffice of Fair Trading referred the proposal to theCompetition Commission with concerns that "there was a danger that the platform could be too powerful".[9] The Commission published an interim report on 3 December saying that the service could "hurt competition"[10] and a final report was published on 4 February 2009, formally blocking the project.[11]
Following the commission's rejection of the bid, the technology platform was put up for sale. The bidders includedOrange (who pulled out)[12] andArqiva.[13] Arqiva launchedSeeSaw in February 2010 as a video-on-demand Internet TV service. It sold a majority stake to US investment firmCriterion Capital Partners in July 2011, but this was insufficient to save the service, which closed from lack of funding and content in October 2011.
Shortly after Project Kangaroo was blocked in 2009,Project Canvas was announced as a partnership between the BBC, BT and ITV plc. It differed from Kangaroo in that it was a proposed TV platform rather than a video-on-demand service. After a lengthy regulatory approval process, it was finally launched in July 2012 asYouView, a hybrid platform using a set-top box combining free-to-air digital terrestrial television channels fromFreeview using an aerial connection, and TV on demand ("catch-up TV") services using a broadband internet connection.
In July 2019 the BBC and ITV announced plans for their joint-venture streaming serviceBritBox (then only available in the United States and Canada) to be launched in the last quarter of 2019 in the UK. In the wake of the announcement journalists linked the two projects, describing BritBox as Kangaroo's successor 11 years on. The main purpose of BritBox is for the traditional UK broadcasters to take a share of the UK streaming market from American rivalsNetflix andAmazon Prime, some calling the venture "British Netflix".[14] BritBox was launched in the UK on 7 November 2019.[15]