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Sky pulls no punches in Kangaroo submission

UK satcaster BSkyB has, perhaps unsurprisingly, hit out at proposed Channel 4/ITV/BBC joint-venture catch-up service Kangaroo in its submission to the Competition Commission.

Sky claimed that “there is a significant prospect that the formation of Kangaroo might be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition.”

It added: “Given the early stage of development of the provision of VoD services, it is particularly important that such services are allowed to develop without distortion. The costs of clearing the merger, in terms of consumer detriment in the context of a sector of the market that is new but rapidly developing may be significant.”

The broadcaster cited the fact that C4, the BBC and ITV account for around 70% of television viewing in all homes in the UK, a figure that rises to 90% in homes that receive the Freeview service.

“Out of the most popular 100 programmes broadcast on television in the UK in 2007, every single one was broadcast by the joint-venture parties,” said Sky.

It added that each of the broadcasters is currently at or near the top of the list of choices for most retailers of VoD services wishing to acquire content.

“As a result, it is likely that Kangaroo will combine VoD retailers’ top choices for VoD content. The joint venture will, therefore, result in an immediate loss of the competition between three close competitors in the provision of VoD rights to VoD retailers,” Sky said.

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