Almost 12 months to the day since the Office of Fair Trading referred Kangaroo to the Competition Commission, the body has accepted the undertakings from the former partners in the £20 million (€23.5 million) project.
In February, the Commission ruled that the BBC Worldwide-ITV-Channel 4 venture was likely to result in a lessening of competition. The undertakings, published last month, will remain in place for five years.
The broadcasters have each agreed that they will not acquire control of any of the others’ VOD activities. Directors or managers will also be prohibited from taking any directorship or managerial position that would give them control of their former partners’ VOD services.
Orange and Arqiva have both been linked with a purchase of the Kangaroo technology, while Channel 4 has moved to make its VOD content freely available, following the revelation that its pay model was achieving less than 1,000 views a day.
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