Digital Crosstalk

British Broadcasters Show United Front

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have announced a collaboration to launch a joint on-demand service which will bring together thousands of hours of broadcast time in one location. Set to go live sometime in 2008, the new service will offer viewers access to both current and archived programming, with programmes from all three broadcasters available for free download, streaming, rental and purchase via the internet. Further broadcast mediums are also planned in due course.

Darren Murphy over at Engadget comments that the three UK competitors “have found enough love in their hearts (or promise for profitability) to team up for the good of the consumer.” Each of the three broadcasters already operate on-demand services, and while the BBC and ITV will continue to run these services as separate entities alongside the new service, Channel 4’s 4oD will no longer be a standalone service once it is incorporated into the new project.

Both the BBC and ITV launched their respective on-demand services earlier in the year, with the ITV offering concentrating on soap opera catch-ups. Channel 4’s 4oD service, meanwhile, already offers several hundred hours of programming across current programmes such as Ugly Betty and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares to classic TV shows such as Father Ted. This joint effort is scheduled for early 2008 according to Duncan Riley at TechCrunch.

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Tags: digital