3 December 2007
Britain’s three most popular broadcasters develop new online TV under the working title Kangaroo, which is set to compete with YouTube.
The three broadcasters will launch a joint television service over the Internet next year in an attempt to compete for online audiences.
The commercial divisions of ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC are each planning to take a one-third stake in the “Freeview online” venture, and will make current and archived programming available to watch over the Internet on demand.
The supply of ITV and Channel 4 programmes promises to be comprehensive, although the BBC plans to keep programmes which have been released in the past seven days separate. These are to be released through its iPlayer software instead.
Clearly commercial in intent, the service will accommodate advertising both within and around clips. Michael Grade, ITV’s executive chairman, implied that some advertising revenue will be shared by saying:
the deal is structured so that we each benefit from content being viewed.
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