Life After Kangaroo : Channel 4 To Launch Upgraded 4oD

After the project Kangaroo debacle that involved some of the media heavyweights, including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4; its partners went on their own ways to fetch something out of the clutter that had consumed them a lot of money and time. 

Now Channel 4 looks forward to reuse the technology of project Kangaroo to launch its on-demand video service in a bid to take on rival BBC’s iPlayer service.

The new CatchUp service from Channel will complement its erstwhile 4oD, the channel’s television and demand service, which lets its users to watch their favourite programmes for last 30 days free of charge.  

Set to be available next month, the new service, which incorporates Flash technology partly to let Mac users to access the player, will come integrated with Channel 4 site, instead of launching as a pop-up application. 

Asserting the utility of the service, Andy Pipes, Channel 4’s product development manager, said in a statement, “This is a departure from our current pop-out experience and should ensure all the information around a programme is available in one place”. 

Incidentally, Project Kangaroo was thrashed by the Competition Commission on the grounds that it would affect competition in the video on demand (VoD) domain. 

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