The BBC has joined with other UK broadcasters to offer a commercial portal to British television shows.
The on-demand service, under the working title of Kangaroo, brings together the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
All three broadcasters already offer programmes over the Internet but only in the UK. This international venture reflects the strength of British broadcasting.
Ashley Highfield, director of BBC Future Media and Technology. offers an insight into the reasons behind the venture in an entry on the BBC Internet blog.
Essentially this is a response to the emergence of other on-demand video services such as Joost or Babelgum,as Highfield does not want to leave it to these new players to “to own the relationship with our audiences”.
It’s critical that we engage with all UK licence fee payers, wherever they are and however they consume our services. And it’s critical that those services are not detrimentally disintermediated by other platforms and gateways – audiences must be aware that they are watching or listening to programmes and services from the BBC: in other words, that we have a deepening, direct relationship with them which is increasingly two-way.
It’s clear that the Beeb is concerned about the brand and ensuring that in a fragmented, new media world, the brand identity remains strong.
PDF