I'd been wondering for a while when we'd see some consolidation of all these media players and on-demand services. It's just not practical for everyone to have multiple desktop players and different online tools for all this content, so from that point of view the BBC's code-named Kangaroo project makes absolute sense.
The downloads service would pool TV content from the major UK broadcasters; the BBC is working with ITV, Channel 4 and will invite other players later. Initially the service will be online and built on the same P2P basis as the iPlayer, but later it could be extended as a digital TV service.
The revenue model is there; users would pay for TV on-demand after the seven-day catch up window. We assume the terms for UK access to BBC content are the same as the iPlayer.
I pay my licence fee and rarely watch conventional TV. None of these services go fast or deep enough. Does anyone else feel that at least for BBC content, seven-days just isn't enough of an opportunity to "catch-up" on content we've already paid for?
So will project Kangaroo "do for TV downloads what Freeview did for digital TV"?
If there's a Mac version of "Kangaroo" then of course I'll use it. Bring it on. But let's just hope it doesn't get bogged down by four-years of imposed ritual bureaucracy that would make the technology redundant before it even launches.
