BBCWW, ITV, C4 confirm Kangaroo launch

Britain’s leading broadcasters have teamed up to officially launch a combined video-on-demand service that will offer 10,000 hours of programming.

Channel 4, ITV and BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the public broadcaster, have unveiled long-rumoured plans to launch Kangaroo, which would offer a combination of free and paid-for programming via peer-to-peer downloads and streaming.

John Smith, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said: "I hope it will be a significant player in the UK broadband market."

Smith told TBIvision that Kangaroo, which is intended to build on the broadcasters’ individual on-demand services including the BBC’s iPlayer, Channel 4’s 4OD and ITV.com, will be launched in early 2008 after the broadcasters finalise details including price.

It will be run by Lesley MacKenzie, the former BSkyB executive who most recently launched Indian DTH platform Tata Sky.