The Kangaroo is a funny animal. It has thrived in one corner of the world but, by comparison with the great creatures that have triumphed across the planet, it remains an oddity. It is fitting, then, that the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have named their marginal and largely ornamental new web-based joint venture after the marsupial. For Project Kangaroo is a cute idea but, as species in the new media go, it is severely limited. The terrestrial broadcasters grew up controlling both their message and their means of distribution.

They packaged the programmes and dispatched them over the airwaves. The arrival of internet-based TV not only takes the distribution out of their hands but also disassembles the packaging process. The viewer, not the broadcaster, can pick and choose an evening’s entertainment from the likes of YouTube. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are looking to regain some of that control. At this stage, the details are furry, more Roo than Kanga, but it seems the idea is that by combining forces they will draw more people looking for on-demand entertainment to their programmes. There are issues of principle at stake. Is this collaboration anticompetitive? Shouldn’t the BBC be platform neutral? Why should ITV gain advertising revenue off an online service supported by licence-fee funded BBC content? And, vice versa?

But, the practical issues are more important. The TV channels are in danger of giving up brand distinction by aggregating their programming online. At the same time, they are going to make an imperceptible impact on the online market for video. Television channels are about content. Kangaroo is the equivalent in the real world of Unilever and Procter & Gamble trying to circumvent the supermarkets by setting up a jointly run stall at a farmers’ market. This is an ill-conceived, underresourced and impractical effort to control the means of distribution. It will prove a waste of time and money. In five years’ time, this Kangaroo will be dead.

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