Kangaroo jump for June
February 27, 2008
The planned video-on-demand joint venture service from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, is set for a June launch. The news leaked after the BBC asked DoubleClick, the online advertising technology provider, to ask its aency clients to attend a briefing.
ITV or Channel 4 will sell the ads for the venture that will act as a single destination for over 10,000 hours of content provided by the partners. One advertiser was quoted as saying, "our view is that these guys have the content to make this (ad-supported VOD service) work and that advertisers would be keen to become involved."
Five's head of digital media Jonathan Lewis said the broadcaster was still in discussions with the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV about joining the platform.
The broadcasters' own VoD offerings, such as the BBC's iPlayer, will continue to run in parallel to Kangaroo, which will focus on paid-for and ad-funded archived and original content.