Arqiva On Kangaroo: ‘Consumer VOD Is A Natural Step For Us’

Arqiva Kangaroo

Arqiva has begun with the UK’s main broadcasters and content providers to bring long-form TV shows to a new consumer-facing part-free VOD website in the coming months, built with the technology infrastructure that remained from the aborted Project Kangaroo JV this week.

We’ve been asking why a broadcast transmission company would want to set up a costly VOD business — so I spoke to Arqiva’s strategic development director Rob Hamlin to find out…

Natural progression: “It’s a new step, but we feel it’s a natural step for us. Arqiva has for many decades been delivering video for broadcasters in the UK and internationally.” While Kangaroo was shot down amid a chorus of disapproval from rival broadcasters and online video start-ups, Hamlin points out that Arqiva “works with all the major broadcasters day to day as a trusted independent provider — that role extends into online video.”

Consumer site: Arqiva hasn’t released a launch date, nor a name, but Hamlin confirms: “This will be a consumer facing site…our plan is launch a site that aggregates content from a range of quality content providers.” He wouldn’t say whether the project will have a white label, video distribution element — pushing partners’ content out to other platforms, saying only that the company is focused on a consumer site launch “initially”. It’s something the company, now busy pushing its sales pitch to content owners, believes there is a “real gap in the market for”.

Broadcaster talks Hamlin admits that signing partners — including the former Kangaroo shareholders — is now a challenging priority. “That’s clearly an important success criteria — access to quality content is the key in all this and we are having those discussions and we’ll hopefully make announcements on that in the near future.”

What assets?: What is Arqiva buying? On the hardware side, there’s an IP infrastructure and backend systems, while in terms of software Arqiva will shortly have what is very close to being a fully-functional VOD website with proprietary video playing technology and user interface. Hamlin points out, as the release did, that Kangaroo was “very close to launch” before the Competition Commission stepped in. No Kangaroo staff are being transferred as part of the deal so Arqiva will look to hire to fill in any gaps in expertise.

Price: Hamlin wouldn’t be drawn on reports that the company paid £8 million for those assets — reportedly less than Orange has offered — but if true that would be a steal for Arqiva, considering that the BBC paid £9 million, ITV forked out £8 million and Channel 4 contributed a similar amount.

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