@ AOP: BBCWW Starts Thinking About YouView VOD

Once upon a time, one might have imagined a Kangaroo on a Canvas. But the former, a commercial VOD JV involving BBC Worldwide, was prohibited…

So what exactly is the route to the coming connected-TV market, for BBCWW’s TV VOD archive?

BBCWW strategy director David Moody, speaking at the Association of Online Publishers’ Digital Publishing Summit 2010, bemoaned the historical lack of a connection to the company’s existing video download options from conventional dumb TVs.

But he got excited about how YouView, the former Project Canvas, “will remove the barrier and drive more impulse purchases” of those shows “with a flick of the remote”.

The company already syndicates pay-for BBC archive shows through third parties like SeeSaw, BlinkBox and iTunes, where it has 1,000 shows online. So, if Kangaroo will no longer manifest through YouView, what will… ?

— a BBCWW-branded VOD app/channel?

— sections of YouView branded by content, ie. the Top Gear area?

— a role for UKTV, which already has rights to BBC shows outside the public-service window?

— or will BBCWW leave it to the likes of SeeSaw and Blinkbox, which license these shows for resale on the web and are getting excited about YouView?

The answer, Moody told paidContent:UK, will be a mixture of all that: “We designed the brands of UKTV to be multiplatform – they will have a role to play. But childrens content doesn