There’s now little chance of Project Kangaroo – rumoured to be named “See-Saw” – launching in February, as the JV’s revised plans had hoped. The Competition Commission this afternoon said it had pushed back the deadline for its antitrust report to February 8.
That’s because BBCWW, ITV (LSE: ITV) and C4 didn’t give the commission the full info it asked for in August, it said. The commission was due to report by December 14. The JV partners subsequently handed over the info by September – but it’s had the side-effect of knocking back the investigation period by two months.
The review has received a deluge of submissions from UK VOD players complaining the JV could unfairly set advertising rates and prices for acquiring TV shows for VOD. Kangaroo has argued it would not be a “cartel” because it would separate the acquisition of rights for VOD and linear TV. paidContent:UK understands the BBC may be ready to make some concessions, before the review deadline, on its earlier hope to have exclusivity over shows.
Another date in the BBC’s diary – the BBC Trust and Ofcom will publish the public value assessment and market impact assessment respectively in to its proposed £68 million BBC Local video news project on November 27. They are part of the wider public value test the trust must apply to each new product launch. Again, this proposal has been met with horror from local newspaper execs – already witnessing the steady erosion of their classifieds base – who claim the plan could kill off their own nascent web video initiatives.