Broadcast Now: Channels agree five-year ban on revisiting Kangaroo

If you want ample evidence as to what degree the Competition Commission hated the whole idea of Project Kangaroo, then look no further than this agreement drawn up between them and the ex-participants of Project Kangaroo which effectively prevents any cooperative video on demand activities between broadcasters for the next five years.

In short, the commission seems hell bent on preventing absolutely anything that was remotely similar to Project Kangaroo from being even fleetingly thought of, including going as far as to prevent directors of the three broadcasters from moving to video on demand-related positions with rival broadcasters without written permission.

But what exactly was so scary about Project Kangaroo from a competitive viewpoint?

After all it's the major broadcasters that hold all the cards in terms of popular programming via their commissions, whether it's EastEnders, Britain's Got Talent or Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, and these broadcasters can dictate to a fair extent when and who buys their programming and for how much.

Of course all of this just serves to raise more questions than answers, notably how will this impact on the forthcoming Project Canvas, especially given Ofcom's public misgivings about broadcasters clubbing together to establish a common standard as opposed to competing against each other with numerous different and incompatible 'standards'.

Given the extremist (and downright incomprehensible) attitude that the Competition Commission has shown towards Project Kangaroo, there is now a fair chance that Project Canvas will at least be stalled for another year or two, even if the actual reason is only based on a technicality.

And whilst the UK goes out of its way to prevent broadcasters from presenting a united front in terms of commercial, internet-based video-on-demand content provision, no such scruples exist across the Atlantic where the joint broadcaster venture Hulu has recently overtaken YouTube in terms of popularity.

Whether a UK launch of Hulu now stands a chance in the aftermath of the great Project Kangaroo failure will be very interesting, since to prevent two giant US broadcasters from offering their video on demand service in the UK could effectively kill the prospects of video on demand altogether outside of certain limited applications.

Conversely if Hulu is allowed to operate in the UK then that by definition will further question any move(s) that prevent the ex-Project Kangaroo participants (ie. the major broadcasters) from operating something similar, as well as putting British broadcasting at a distinct disadvantage compared with its American cousins.

Given government ministers' previous efforts to promote the UK as a major centre of excellence for media content, preventing UK broadcasters from matching the likes of Hulu will inevitably cause major problems in this regard both in terms of credibility and the ability to compete on a world stage.

Plus what difference would it have made if major UK broadcasters are forced to offer their content via a foreign-owned dominant platform (like Hulu) compared with what Project Kangaroo could have offered if it had been allowed? And don't respond with the suggestion that competition would be somehow "fairer" as a result - that's just a myth.

Otherwise UK viewers will presumably have to either make do with iPlayer/ITV Player/4oD, etc. - or a few bits and pieces from the likes of YouTube - unless it's buying programmes outright from iTunes or on DVD/Blu-ray from your local HMV. Which won't be the desired approach to either promote broadband as part of "Digital Britain" or to combat piracy.

Of course killing services such as Project Kangaroo (and perhaps even Hulu) could also be construed as being a protectionist measure in relation to established pay-TV provision such as Sky and Virgin Media services, since by making things difficult for broadcasters in turn makes things easier for the "old guard", at least in the short term.

Still there's at least one other broadcast platform that's dominated by the major broadcasters, where commercially-funded operators stick to a basic set of rules together with charging fair prices for advertising and the subsequent resale of content where desirable/permitted, even if these broadcasters can't/don't offer bulk programming deals.

It's called Freeview.