Under the Rotunda

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Hulu, Joost, Virgin Media, and many more can breathe a little easier for now. The Competition Commission in the UK have this morning released their decision on the VOD joint project between Channel 4, ITV, and BBC Worldwide: Kangaroo has been deemed to control too much originial UK content between the 3 parties involved, to go ahead.

From the press release, citing Commision Chairman Peter Freeman:

"The case is essentially about the control of UK-originated TV content. VOD is an exciting and fast-moving development in TV, which makes programmes previously broadcast available to viewers at a time of their choice. The evidence we saw showed that UK viewers particularly value programmes produced and originally shown in the UK and do not regard other content as a good substitute.

BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 together control the vast majority of this material, which puts them in a very strong position as wholesalers of TV content to restrict competition from other current and future providers of VOD services to UK viewers. We thought the joint venture parties would have an interest in doing so, in order to make Project Kangaroo a success."

The history of the project is well documented all over the web so I won't go into it here. But it is safe to say no one really knew which way the Commission was leaning until today's publication of their final findings - the FT for example published two stories within a matter of 8 hours, the first saying the project would get a green light, the second saying no.

Part of the reason for no clear sight on what the Commission's final ruling would be was the time allowed, after their prelim ruling was published in December last year, for the Kangaroo team as well as other interested parties/competititors time to adapt their original proposal.

The full report is also out now, so I might be back with more thoughts after I read that.

Update 1: Robert over at PaidContent has got the response from the Project Kangaroo parties:

"The consortium issued its response within 10 minutes of the verdict:
“We are disappointed by the decision to prohibit this joint venture.
While this is an unwelcome finding for the shareholders, the real
losers from this decision are British consumers. This is a disproportionate remedy and a missed opportunity in the further development of British broadcasting.”

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade: “We are surprised by this
decision because we believed that the Kangaroo joint venture, competing
in a crowded online world against dominant global brands, was an
attractive UK consumer proposition, free at the point of use. However,
in the two years since the idea for Kangaroo was born, the success of
ITV.com has proved that our UK content is attractive enough to stand on
its own and we remain focussed on our online growth."

Update 2: From The Guardian, it's looking like there'll be no further challenge from UKVOD, and that each of ITV, C4, and BBCWW will announce their own plans in time.

Finally, after missing their mooted original launch time by about a season, today Amazon here in the UK launched their MP3 store. Find it here.

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages - I’m happy to pay for music, but founding lesser known tracks and albums especially is a pain outside of iTunes (and even osmetimes in iTunes). I’m glad there’s now a good, wide-ranging DRM-free source.

My acid test: they have loads of The Lucksmiths, including the latest album First Frost.

It’s going to be all over the trade press for at least this week.

The friendly prelim heads-up from the Competition Commission on Project Kangaroo, the JV between C4, ITV and BBC, in advance of their final ruling due in February 2009, is out.

The basic gist: "Make some changes buddy".

The Commission is of the opinion that the proposal in its current form will restrict competition in the wholesale and retail VOD markets (content acquistion and online advertising areas were deemed fine).

There’s no need for me to cover things  that are goign to be run to death over the next day or two, so for now, just go to PaidContent UK, who as far as I know got the news up first (and for those in the UK, if you don’t read already, well, do)

http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-breaking-kangaroo-will-be-anti-competitive-commission-says/

Two days ago I included the snippet that BBC Trust approved the use of "pre-booking" with the iPlayer (online version, not other platforms).

I thought that meant some shows would be available up to 7 days before linear broadcast (and thought "pre-booking" was an odd name).

From the BBC management’s submission to the Trust, as well as the Trust’s explanatory note on their decision that I read last night:

• Pre-booking does not allow programs to be viewed before their linear broadcast premiere (the DRM in place is to protect this*).
• Pre-booking does allow for shows to be downloaded to a users’ computers before their broadcast. This is so those who choose to download programs - functionality that currently exists with the iPlayer ; distinct from the more common streaming option - can basically get the program downloaded over night etc, so they can view it straight away without waiting f or it to download after it becomes available to watch.
• It will also bring an auto-scheduling element to program downloads - eg jsut before a series starts on braodcast, you’ll be able to say "download each episode in the whole series in quiet times when they’re available, so they’re ready for me to watch as soon as they’re broadcast"

Once again, this will no impact on those who currently use and choose to continue to use the streaming method to access iPlayer content.

(*Anyone have any info around how succesful/secure the DRM systems around the current iPlayer downloads are? )

I don’t often pimp a project or campaign my or my agency is involved in (without looking back over the last 3 years to be sure, I’m actually wondering whether I ever have), but I wanted to mention this one, because its starting to get some traction, but also because it’s about music (which if you know me, you know I love).

If you’re a member of a music forum, consider getting your forum to take part in the Absolute Radio Rock-Off. Full details are at this page here, but the basics of it are that Absolute Radio is now more about real music than its predecessor was, and they’re getting music forums to show off their real music knowledge and passion, by giving them a chance to program a show on the radio. 

It is open to any forums that are dedicated to an artist or band - whether they’re UK-based or not. They just have to debate amongst themselves the ultimate playlist  - 6 songs from their own artist, 6 songs from other artists, and of course the order of the songs matters! - and have the forum admin send it to us (page here) by Sunday 23 Nov.

Rock-off.

Maybe PR folk related to digital video operations think Monday is a slow news day traditionally, or maybe there’s just that much happening in the area… Either way, i thought it worth linking to the EIGHT pieces of digital video related news from today/yesterday (depending on what country you’re in and when you’re reading):

• Ashley Highfield has left the top job at Kangaroo (the joint venture between ITV, Channel 4, and BBC Worldwide). He is off to head up Microsoft/MSN. Before Kangaroo, Highfield was head of BBC future and media tech department - PaidContent UK article here.
• The BBC Trust yesterday approved the iPlayer to allow viewing of TV shows on the platform up to 7 days before broadcast. BBC management are calling it "pre-booking". Keep in mind it’s just approval from a Trust perspective - there’s no word yet on when this may be implemented (although I would imagine it is pretty high on the development list). MediaWeek article here (regn may be required).  On the pre-broadcast note, Virgin Media are now in the middle of their trial of premiering some of the kids TV shows via VoD before their first broadcast date, that they announced last month.
• Channel 4 announced it is killing its iTV (red button) operation (in addition to its mobile sales). It needs to save cash overall so is trimming various areas, but also says iTV never really got that much traction in the wider market. BrandRepublic article here.
• YouTube signs up one more studio for full length content - MGM. At the moment it is some old TV shows, and some movies. NYT article here.
• Sky (BSkyB) is to launch an online video subscription offering, so you’ll be able to watch certain bits of their content (such as some football) without having to have the full blown TV subscription. While it sounds like at the moment it is a subscription offering, and not a pay-as-you-snack option, I imagine final structure and pricing isn’t set in stone yet. The Guardian article here.

• The first: A pretty straight-forward example of using a digital site as a replacement distribution mechanism (coupled with extra kudos because of the talkability it will get, simply because it’s more in the continuing use of digital that has been his whole campaign): Obama didn’t release the behind-the-scenes photos from election night to a major press outlet, but instead continued posting them on Flickr, along with the rest of his campaign photos. See them here (first found via Lost Remote).

• The second: An example of building a media property from the ground up digitally and how that lets you build a dedicated community around that property. Yes, the chances are high that the community will start smaller when compared to having a TV show with its ready-made audience of millions all rush over to a website, but this community is far, far more dedicated, and will help ensure growth at a high rate. This is regardless of where final audience numbers for the site fall - after all, surely the millions of eyeballs available to TV shows is only a function of the channel/network as a property having been around for 10,20,30 years+, so of course it’s not too suprising that any pure-digital media property isn’t quite there yet. And besides, there are far greater benefits than just using the community to grow audience: they become quasi-reporters and photographers for the site (read: help reduced editorial staff costs and production costs). The example: the Londonist Flickr pool (Londonist itself is here - a site I really love by the way ; the Flickr pool is here, with its 1600 members and 35,000 photos) check it out to get an idea of the free, crowd-sourced content that comes knocking on their proverbial door every day.

• The third: I’m not really sure what to call this, except that it carries on the theme of "personal branding" and this is increasingly becoming a factor in new media. It’s from Gary Vee (the Wine Library TV guy) whose intensity can be offputting for a lot of people (I flip-flop on the guy, personally, some days I think he’s great, other times not so much). He’s responding to a section of Howard Stern’s radio show. It’s well worth a watch - see it here on Charlie’s site (where I first found it).

• In the UK: Virgin Media and BSkyB have kissed and made up around carriage fees (details of fees weren’t disclosed, not surprisingly) so now you’ll be able to get the main named Sky channels on Virgin, and the main named Virgin channels on Sky -(link: The Register)

• NYT release another nifty little data visualisation thing - this one based around the US election - check out the word trail here

• Omniture have released a free Jupiter Research report "Search marketing and analytics - Making sense of the data overload" (found via Will Scully-Power at Mark).  You can get it here  (or try here - this link may take you past the form straight to the doc). The report is from Jan this year, but isn’t any less relevant because of that. (I quite like the approach too btw, a nice little co-marketing effort that benefits both companies.)

• In Australia: Sensis has finally admitted its search offering is rubbish - it will run Google search and AdSense ads across its properties. In addition, businesses listed in the Yellow Pages will show up in Google Maps results. This obviously secures wider distribution for any businesses coughing up to go in the Yellow Pages which Sensis sales people can use as a sales point to maintain the custom of small businesses, but isn’t Sensis also handing Google a massive wealth of content to Google Maps that will in turn make that product - and not Sensis’ mapping product WhereIs- more and more valuable to Joe Public user?  (News found via Shepherd, and B&T article also now accessible.)
• Forrester’s James McQuivey has a great post on the MTV/MySpace/Auditude announcement - the one where everyone’s hoping to make money from user-posted copyrighted content. The post is here.

• In the UK: MSN has gone and commissioned an "exclusive online drama" - it will be 10 3 minute episodes, shown over 5 weeks. It’s called Kirill and is a co-production between Endemol and Pure Grass Films. Those who don’t already have Silverlight installed will either end up installing as the video player is Silverlight-based, or just give up and go find other 3 min distractions elsewhere.  (via a Media Guardian article here)

Finally, don’t forget it is now Movember -  make sure you sponsor a Mo Bro near you!

(UK site here. AU site here).

For what will turn out to to be an increasingly serious US election day, some embarrasingly lovely videos from misc agencies below, courtesy of Mr Emmel.

THey’re not in quite the same vein as that agency.com Subway pitch video (that I can’t seem to re-locate), but just as embarrassing:

MindShare’s  “We work hard for your money”  (this one’s old – I remember it doing the rounds when I was still there – does that just make it a ‘classic’?) - http://www.brandnewtelly.com/mindshare/

BBDO China – allegedly this is part of a grad recruitment video for male creatives

Ogilvy – one of the Ogilvy offices made this tribute to their namesake David Ogilvy