Channel 4, BBC and ITV join up online
Updated on 27 November 2007
One of the frustrations of watching television online is the fact that you need to install a separate player for each different broadcaster - Channel 4 or BBC.
The UK's three leading terrestrial broadcasters have now proposed an answer to this problem, with the announcement of 'Kangaroo', a project to build a joint player which will deliver programmes from ITV, the BBC and Channel 4.
The service, due to launch in 2008, will offer both streamed and downloaded programmes, which will be either aired for free, rented or sold, and will display advertising.
The major competitor for all these services is the illegal download market - most popular TV shows can be easily found on the web.
Initially at least, Kangaroo will not reduce the number of different TV players on the UK market. Kangaroo will supplant Channel 4's 4oD service, but the BBC will continue to offer its current advert-free iPlayer TV delivery programme, and ITV will continue with some of its offerings.
In fact, Kangaroo will enter an increasingly competitive online television market. Sky is not part of Kangaroo, so it will continue to offer its Sky Anytime service.
A number of start-up operations are crowding the market, such as BabelGum and the much-hyped Joost, founded by the Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the duo behind the online phone service Skype.
The major competitor for all these services is the illegal download market - most popular TV shows can be easily found on the web.
The BBC spend four years developing its iPlayer, but still hasn't officially launched it - it's still in a public testing phase, known in tech-speak as 'beta'.
It will not be easy to balance the BBC board's commitment to openness and supporting multiple operating systems, with the controls which the US-based rights holders will demand - and it is they who supply much of 4's most desirable content.
But building them all into one usable and successful download service will be a challenge, both technologically and politically.
But at least they have one thing in common.
A neat little irony of the situation for anyone determined to watch television on their PCs is that many of the players available are actually based on the same underlying technology - the Kontiki P2P download software is the heart of Sky Anytime, the BBC iPlayer and 4oD.
