Arqiva’s unlikely son-of-Kangaroo online VOD portal SeeSaw has finally struck its first content deal. Its licensing BBC Worldwide shows for a mix of free and paid.
But this isn’t yet the springboard SeeSaw needs, and there are some unanswered questions…
— Same ‘ol: First, BBCWW’s repertoire is just about the first and easiest every budding online service gets, from iTunes Store to MSN in Latin America to Blinkbox.
— Not much: Unlike Kangaroo before it, which promised “over 10,000 hours of … current and archive programming”, SeeSaw isn’t putting a number on how many BBCWW shows it’s getting. That suggests it’s small.
— No top shows: The shows SeeSaw is naming are That Mitchell & Webb Look, classic Doctor Who, Cranford and Lark Rise to Candleford. Well, at least I’ve heard of two of them.
— Still no launch date: SeeSaw’s unlikely to launch with just one set of rights. It needs more.
SeeSaw CEO Pierre-Jean Sebert, in the announcement, says it’s a “significant milestone”, hopeful of creating the “ideal destination for consumers to indulge their passion for TV”…
He’s not there yet but, just as YouTube won C4 and gathered what few premium TV assets it has in to a UK Shows portal last month, it’s fair enough for SeeSaw to entice other rightsholders by showing off what it’s got as the VOD race hots up in to 2010…
— Hulu is still trying to pick up UK content, offering equity in return for exclusivity.
— BBC is still offering to share iPlayer to all comers and take the whole thing on to TV through Canvas.
— MSN wants to be the