Orange have pulled out of plans to buy up the catch-up TV service that went by the working titled of Project Kangaroo. France Telecom, Orange’s parent company had this to say in the following statement:
“We can confirm that we are not pursuing our interest in the catch-up TV service Kangaroo. After in-depth due diligence, we concluded that it was unlikely that an outcome which benefited France Telecom’s Orange operations would be met.”
The ill-fated Project Kangaroo is a collaboration between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and was conceived as a kind of merger of the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4oD video on demand platforms. First of all it was blocked from going ahead by the Competition Commission, which ruled that it would be too much of a threat to competition in the IPTV market, currently only occupied by BT Vision and Tiscali TV.
High-speed broadband will be a key factor in the growth of public service broadcasting, according to a think tank. In a report published today, the Social Market Foundation suggested that funding earmarked for public service broadcasting should be diverted to ensure comprehensive broadband coverage across the UK. The economic and social policy think tank said that investing in high-speed broadband would improve Britain’s broadband infrastructure and help lessen the digital divide.
The report, which examined the relationship between technology and broadcasting, was funded by the BBC and Five. It argued that broadcasting policy needs to reflect a wider audience and focus more on the wider communications sector, including broadband, rather than exclusively on the television sector. Investing in broadband technologies would bring faster internet connections to more people, thus encouraging generation of more diverse content.
Sky are all set to raise £450 million in a bond issue to institutional investors in order to stump up some massive coin which is allegedly earmarked for the acquisition of the UK tentacle of Tiscali.
Tiscali have recently confirmed that they have been in talks with Sky over a potential deal – the Italy-based ISP and telecoms outfit announced late last year that the long term goal for 2008 was to find themselves the right buyer.
It is uncertain whether or not the deal includes Sky taking over the Tiscali TV IPTV platform, on which there are already a number of Sky channels. If the deal goes ahead, Tiscali TV, which began life as Homechoice, could potentially be rebranded under the Sky Picnic name, in the event that a deal with Ofcom is worked out.
The move would not only see Sky leapfrog into third place behind broadband and digital TV rivals BT and Virgin Media and ahead of Carphone Warehouse, whose main broadband concern TalkTalk is also reportedly up for sale.
There are rumours that Sky are also interested in buying up TalkTalk along with Tiscali, but if this were true, then the satellite giant would probably need to dig a little deeper – the TalkTalk arm of Carphone’s business is valued at a cool £1bn.
Sky and Virgin Media have just announced that, following successful negotiations, they have agreed to two new channel carriage deals, the first of which finally sees the return of the missing Sky channels to the Virgin Media TV platform next Thursday on the 13th of November - something of an early Christmas present for Virgin customers.
We can confirm that Sky’s Basic channels – including Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 – will arrive on Virgin Media’s cable TV service, and in return, Virgin Media TV’s basic channels – Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Trouble, Challenge and Virgin 1 – will become a mainstay of Sky’s TV channel line-up on satellite.
Sky3, Sky News and Sky Sports News will be part of Virgin Media’s M TV package and therefore be available to all digital TV subscribers, with Sky1 and Sky2 will join Virgin Media’s L and XL TV packages. Sky Arts 1, Sky Arts 2, Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 will make up the rest of Virgin Media’s XL TV package.
Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Virgin 1 and Challenge will be available to subscribers of Sky’s Variety pack of channels, with Trouble becoming available to subscribers to Sky’s Children’s pack.
The two deals are set to run concurrently until the 12th of June 2011, with agreements on carriage fees now fixed, with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets.
Orange are understood to be ready to launch their long-awaited IPTV (TV via broadband) service, after having taken its trials for its digital TV service to the whole country. Launch was supposed to be something in ‘late 2007′, which obviously didn’t happen, and the launch was moved back to an indeterminate time – trials are apparently still ongoing, but it is understood that the service will be ready to launch very soon.
At the time, Orange said that: “The first phase - our trial to existing paying broadband customers - started in November. Around 300 customers in Leeds and London are currently providing us with essential feedback. Once we’ve reviewed and assessed this feedback, we’ll then continue to roll out to other major towns and cities in the New Year.”
Orange has managed to secure a deal with MGM which will allow them to supply movies on demand to France, Spain and Poland as well as the UK. Orange will also be rolling with Rewind TV, a catch up service which allows you to watch the last months’ worth of programmes on demand - check out the clip uploaded to YouTube.
This could really help Orange’s IPTV offering stand out from the crowd, as the Virgin Media and BT Vision catch up services by contrast allow you to watch the last week’s worth of programmes. By effectively quadrupling the amount of TV you can watch, Orange have already increased the added value of their digital TV service four fold. We said last December that 2008 was set to be the year of IPTV. This could be interesting…
Orange have pulled out of plans to buy up the catch-up TV service that went by the working titled of Project Kangaroo. France Telecom, Orange’s parent company had this to say in the following statement:
