BBC, ITV and Channel 4 team up for on-demand service

Don't look now, but it seems that three rivals in the UK have found enough love in their hearts (or promise for profitability) to team up for the good of the consumer. Reportedly, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will be joining hands in order to deliver an on-demand service that hopes to "bring together hundreds of hours of television programs in one place" -- a collaborative effort once known as Project Kangaroo. Of course, the grand idea still has to be approved by the BBC Trust and other broadcasters' boards, and an official name for the service still has to be thought up, but at least the wheels are apparently turning, right? We're hearing that content from the trio will be available for "free download, streaming, rental and purchase via the internet, with expansion onto other platforms planned," and just in case you were curious, the iPlayer, ITV's catch-up service and Channel 4oD will indeed coexist with the new aggregator. Hang tight UK, the to-be-named service is set to go live sometime next year should things pan out nicely.

[Via Yahoo / Reuters]

[David @ Nov 27th 2007 8:42AM]

Ensure Mac support and I'm chuffed! Nice one. Good to see media companies working together and for the consumer.

[Liam @ Nov 27th 2007 6:20PM]

If it's ad based, it'll likely won't need DRM and therefore they'll probably just use a standard browser plugin (WM, Real, Quicktime). That's what the BBC's current 'free' content does. I've been without a TV for ages as I'm at Uni ('College')... but I can follow The Mighty Boosh and The Daily Show online so my PVR ('Tivo') won't be quite so ridiculously full when I go home for christmas.

For everyone not in the UK, I hope they let you guys watch too. That's the biggest problem with online content right now.

[Shadowise @ Nov 27th 2007 9:06AM]

Looks like channel 5 missed the boat... not that they show anything good anyways, lol.

[Phil Perman @ Nov 27th 2007 9:42AM]

To be fair, channel 5 have The Gadget Show and 5th Gear, both of which are pretty decent shows. Theres also good movies on now and then. But that said, spread over their 3 channels, its not an awful lot of content.

Now, if UKTV and, dare I say it, Sky got on board with this, that would be brilliant

[mattclarkie @ Nov 27th 2007 2:26PM]

This series of The Gadget Show hasn't been as good, trying to cater for the new 8pm market. And Top Gear whips 5th Gear.

I wouldn't even say that BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are rivals. ITV and Channel 4 are both part of ITN, and BBC is non-profit so has no rivals. I think the companies should focus on getting their HD channels out the door first, as these Catch-up things really aren't that good in the age of the PVR unless the quality is upto Broadcast and don't demand the download of unreliable software such as 4OD, for some reason it just doesn't play nice with FlashPlayer.

[Ian @ Nov 27th 2007 9:07AM]

Glad to see someone has a brain.

[Matt Brydon @ Nov 27th 2007 9:34AM]

Excelent, i have just gotten seriously into C4od since they released most of the decent stuff they have shown over the last 25 years all for free!
looks like things can only get better..... unless of course all the costs go up...

[Irregular Shed @ Nov 27th 2007 9:36AM]

The problem is going to be the way they deliver content.

BBC iPlayer uses the abominable Kontiki.
ITV's on demand software is built around the heinous Kontiki.
Channel 4's 4oD is a constructed using the makes-baby-Jesus-cry Kontiki.

I wonder what technology they'll slump towards...

If you've never used a Kontiki app before, be prepared for a background process that runs as a normal process, that periodically churns up 100% of your CPU (on mine - once every 60 seconds, for between 10 and 20 seconds), that has no bandwidth control settings, and that remains running when you close down what you think is the application. And you'll only be able to control it with a bugged Javascript-centric page in an embedded instance of IE.

[Jim @ Nov 27th 2007 9:44AM]

Yep quite agree. I've tried both BBC iPlayer and 4od and although the concept is good, the software is terrible. In fact the Kontiki agent doesn't even uninstall when you uninstall their software. It just sits there using up your bandwidth and CPU time. They need to seriously reconsider their technology partner before they move on any further down this road.

[chezzo @ Nov 27th 2007 11:53AM]

Never a truer word was said!

If you go to msconfig you can stop Kontiki from loading on system startup at least temporarily... But this is reversed every time you have to boot it to use iPlayer etc again.

Also, has anyone else had problems with the different services conflicting with each other. When I installed iPlayer it broke 4od and I had to reinstall... I still occasionally have problems with it.

[mattclarkie @ Nov 27th 2007 2:38PM]

I gather you were able to install the software. I am in the fairly large minority who get installation errors which the broadcasters blame on Adobe. The fix they suggest doesn't work and as they claim Adobe and not their software is the fault they refuse to do anything about it.

I haven't tried recently, but as you don't recommend the software I won't bother. I have Sky+, and although some programmes I would like are only available On Demand, I would sooner not Bloat my Suprisingly Reliable Vista Box.

[Apoco-Lips @ Nov 27th 2007 10:01AM]

I fear this will be Windows only & UK only... 0_o

[Nick @ Nov 27th 2007 3:23PM]

And why shouldn't it be UK only?
Theres enough US only stuff. Give us a slice.

[anthony @ Jul 14th 2008 4:31PM]

indeed. it's not like you pay a tv license so why should you get to watch the stuff we pay for?

[Mr Pineapples @ Nov 27th 2007 10:17AM]

Could be good. Although these services should be free to uk tv license holders. At the moment I use torrents, mainly through lazyness & convenience. The stuff on the BBC site is such rubbish quality at the moment.

[Chupacabra @ Nov 27th 2007 11:24AM]

Is this UK only?

[Andrew Davidson @ Nov 27th 2007 1:34PM]

You don't pay a license fee, so at the very least the BBC won't be worldwide.

[Martyn Chadderton @ Nov 27th 2007 3:14PM]

The BBC content will have to run on Mac as otherwise it will be seen as favouring/endorsing Windows/Microsoft. The BBC has been told to make it's iplayer mac compatible as soon as possible (if it isn't already).

[Nick @ Nov 27th 2007 3:22PM]

About frikin' time too.

Now go and make friends with Sky and we've got a done deal.

[Wwhat @ Nov 27th 2007 6:46PM]

I tried to watch a BBC news video the other day and it first tried to connect to ads.doubleclick.net, how the semi-reliable have fallen :/

[Wwhat @ Nov 27th 2007 6:49PM]

Oh and you britains: I'm sure the data collected of what you are watching and have watched and when and how often is completely secure, safely tucked away on CD's.