The Original Sims

Mark Sweney Guardian Unlimited Tuesday November 27 2007 

BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV are to launch a video-on-demand service offering more than 10,000 hours of TV programming.

The project has a working title Kangaroo as first revealed by MediaGuardian in June. Its launch next year could be a watershed moment in the development of on-demand video media in the UK.

Kangaroo, which one source has described as "wanting to do for broadband what Freeview did for digital TV", will be a joint venture in which BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 have an equal share.

In a joint statement, the partners said Kangaroo "will work independently as an aggregator of both joint venture partners and third-party content".

 

More …

Looking at my Blog log (what searches brought people to my Blog), there are a lot of searches for ITV on demand.

On demand is now available for BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. BBC’s iPlayer is still in public beta and will be for a few more weeks.  iPlayer and Chanel Four’s 4OD deliver files to your hard drive and allow you time to watch - a week in both cases, I think.  ITV on demand streams programmes on your PC and Five downleads to your PC.

Find them here:

BBC iPlayer

Channel 4 On Demand

Five

ITV

I’ve been talking to people about the US version of Current TV since I came across it over a year ago.  You’ve probably heard it was launched in the UK yesterday.  It’s highly interactive combining TV, web, Viewer Created Content (which they call VC2, significantly cooler than our "UGC") which forms one third of the output - and this is not YouTube standard; it is broadcast standard. There are even viewer made adverts.

The web previews films, and the audience - who can sign-up and become active members - can vote a film on to the TV, essentially "Green Light" it.

Current.tv is on satellite on 229 and cable on 155.

It might not be the future of all TV, but I expect it is going to be significant particularly among younger audiences who have on their home computers all the software they need to produce high quality video.

Check it out

Current (UK) http://uk.current.com/
Current (USA)  http://www.current.com
Guardian report: http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2032434,00.html

And for those watching tonight in Northern Ireland (or in UK on a platform where you can see BBC Northern Ireland) …

 Tonight from W5 at the Oddessy in Belfast The Big Bumper Science Quiz.

You can play here online from today, where you can print off a Big Bumper Science Quiz certificate with your score and grade.

We’ll be breaking your results down into counties and gender to see who and where the top scientists are in Northern Ireland.

Hosted by Eamon Holmes and Christine Bleakley, The Big Bumper Science Quiz will be broadcast live from W5 at the Odyssey complex in Belfast tonight beginning at 9.00pm.

On the night of the quiz you can play along at home via the red button or use your mobile phone to send us your answers.

The programme is produced by Wild Rover and the interactivity by the guys from BBC’s eTV in London and the new Media team here.

If they let me into the playout, there might be photos tomorow.