From Colin Mann in London The UK's Competition Commission has decided to block the proposed video on demand (VOD) joint venture between the BBC through BBC Worldwide Limited (BBCW), ITV plc (ITV) and Channel Four Television Corporation (C4)—UKVOD, also known as 'Project Kangaroo'. It has concluded that none of the other remedies proposed could remove […]

Babelgum has called for the scrapping of the BBC/C4/ITV JV Kangaroo declaring any other option would breach Competition Commission rules. In its written response to the Commission's suggested remedies to keep the JV legal, Babelgum says only one of the proposed options – banning the project – is realistic. Last month Kangaroo made its compromise […]

Over 80 copyright holders including video portal Joy.cn, film distributor PolyBona Film, and record label Orange Sky Entertainment have formed an anti-piracy alliance, and are suing China's largest video-sharing site Tudou. In May 2008, Joy.cn filed suit against Tudou for unauthorised use of its video content, which Tudou resolved in November with an out-of-court settlement […]

Despite dropping its pursuit of pay-per-click ad network MIVA last month after being rebuffed, Blinkx's now restarted the reverse-takeover bid after recording strong earnings last week ($19 million), the new bid is far less than the$41 million first offered back in August, but is still 108 percent up on MIVA's Tuesday close. MIVA's share price […]

Hulu, the video website owned by News Corp and NBC Universal, hopes to expand internationally and is interested in Britain, France, Germany and Japan. Peter Smith, President of NBC Universal International, told reporters that his firm would love to roll out the online video joint venture further but that there were no concrete plans to […]

ITV has signed an agreement with BT to supply a range of current and library programming to customers of BT's digital TV service, BT Vision – ITV's first deal of this type with a VOD operator. BT Vision customers will also be able to enjoy a range of library content on demand.

BSkyB is to launch an online subscription service allowing consumers to watch channels including Sky Sports via the Internet for the first time. Mike Darcey, BSkyB chief operating officer, said the new service would be launched “in the next few months”. The online channels will be made available on the Sky Player and viewers will […]

As an open-source technology protocol, the file-sharing system BitTorrent represents about half the world's Internet traffic by some measures. But the San Francisco company, BitTorrent, is showing signs of serious trouble while it tries to commercialize the technology. BitTorrent has informed about half its employees, or 18 people, that they were being let go, according […]

Video search engine blinkx has formed a partnership with ExitReality, the company 'that converts the Web into three dimensions.' Users of ExitReality will now have access to millions of hours of Internet video to view and share in 3D spaces, courtesy of blinkx. Gartner analysts have predicted that 80 per cent of all active Internet […]

Sandvine, provider of intelligent broadband network solutions, has released a global Internet traffic trends report based on millions of subscribers from around the world. Report findings include real proof of the inevitable shift in consumer behaviour as online entertainment-based applications such as gaming, video streaming, social networking and VoIP communications dominate peak evening hours between […]