Kangaroo deadline extended

The competition commission has set a new deadline for deciding the fate of Project Kangaroo – 8 February next year.

Provisional findings on the joint video on demand venture - backed by BBC, C4 and ITV - will be made by December, and will be followed by a consultation period.

The Office of Fair Trading referred Kangaroo to the commission on 30 June this year, due to concerns the venture would control too much of the nascent VoD market, resulting in a "substantial lessening of competition.

In August, Kangaroo disagreed with the Office's claims, and said its service would account for around a 21% share of the VoD market for paid for broadcast content.

The initial deadline was set for December 14 this year, but it was extended because the broadcasters had been unable to supply the documents requested by the commission in the given timeframe.

In a statement, commission chairman Peter Freeman said that the required information had now been received "to its satisfaction".

Source: BroadcastNow