BBC video on demand plan canned

THE BBC, ITV AND CHANNEL FOUR put their heads together way back in 2007 and decided to get together as one big happy family to provide humanity with a fantastic video on demand service (VOD) the likes of which the world has never seen.

But it seems like after years of legal wrangling, the British authorities have put a halt to the plan because the antitrust agancy thought that the three biggest broadcasters in Britain should be competing with each other, rather than helping each other out.

What's that Skip? They've thrown a golden opportunity down the well? Drongos!

Kangaroo, as the VOD service would have been named, has now been permanently shelved, much to the dissapointment of many Brit consumers.

The three broadcasting giants wanted to pool their enormous archives which would have allowed anyone to get free streaming access to millions of hours of free telly supported by advertising revenue and pay-to-own fees.

But the agency thought that Kangaroo would be too powerful and would soon put the likes of Joost and Vision IPT out of business.

The triumvirate of telly companies even offered to sell its content to other outfits at knockdown prices but the agency was having none of it, saying, "The three joint venture partners are the largest TV companies in this country and you would normally expect them to compete with each other on a thing like this. We're not against the exciting invention - that's great - but there are lots of other people who can offer it. All we're saying is that we don't think these three people should do it together."

The broadcasters said in a joint statement, "The real losers from this decision are British consumers. This is a disproportionate remedy and a missed opportunity in the further development of British broadcasting." µ