Embattled by concerns from numerous competitors that it will unfairly impact wholesale, consumer and advertising prices, Project Kangaroo has decided to issue a spirited, 73-page rebuttal of the claims – we have the full document, released today, in this post. It’s a collection of the same kinds of defence we heard from Kangaroo recently – but the fact Kangaroo felt compelled to make this big case suggests it’s eager put a cork in the gripes rivals have submitted in recent weeks to the Competition Commission’s ongoing inquiry – the BBCWW/ITV/C4 JV was not compelled by the commission to submit this joint position paper but volunteered to do so.
— Rights: The document argues Kangaroo won’t have unfair access to VOD rights because they will be separate from TV show rights.
— Prices: In arguing against claims it will drive up VOD prices to consumers, it reveals over 90 percent of on-site shows will be free to viewers.
— Market share: It repeats its expectation it will get 10 percent of UK VOD revenue by 2012 and argue it faces “significant competition” from Sky, Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Amazon’s Lovefilm and Tesco. And it denies it will control too many VOD rights: “A significant proportion of the parties