channel 4

Because the [itvt] editorial team is busy working on The TV of Tomorrow Show (March 3rd-4th in San Francisco) and on our new EBIF Intensive event (March 5th in San Francisco), we are covering a number of stories in this issue in summary form:

UK commercial terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4, and ISP, Talk Talk (which, among other things, operates the UK's Tiscali TV IPTV service), have become members of Project Canvas, joining the BBC, UK commercial terrestrial broadcasters ITV and Five, and UK incumbent telco BT, in the project, which is seeking to develop a common standard and interface for the delivery of online catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer and the ITV player, as well as other Internet-based VOD services, to broadband-connected Freeview and Freesat set-top boxes (note: Freeview and Freesat are the UK's free-to-air digital ter

UK broadcaster, Channel 4, has tapped digital agency, Anywhichway, to create an application on its Web site that combines Twitter with Google Maps and GPS technology, in order to build interest in "Alone in the Wild," a show set to debut next month that follows documentary filmmaker, Ed Wardle, as he spends 12 weeks surviving alone in the Yukon.

The Competition Commission--an independent public body which investigates mergers, markets and regulated industries at the UK government's behest, and which in February nixed Project Kangaroo, a joint video-on-demand venture between the BBC's BBC Worldwide arm, ITV and Channel 4, on the grounds that it would result in a "substantial lessening of competition in the supply of UK TV VOD content at the wholesale and retail levels"--published Friday drafts of "undertakings" that each of the Kangaroo partners must commit to in order to ensure that they do not engage (at least anytime soon) in joint activities that could restrict competition in the UK VOD market.

UK terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4, says it will cease offering red- button interactive TV advertising on December 31st, because it has experienced a significant decline in demand for such advertising over the past year. The broadcaster shut down its red-button content services in late 2005. "Over the past 12 months we have seen a steep decline in demand for interactive TV advertising, and it is with regret that we are closing this area of business," it said in a prepared statement. Channel 4 will also no longer sell ads around its mobile content. The moves are part of an ongoing initiative to cut its operating costs by £100 million.

--Company is a VOD Joint Venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4

Ashley Highfield has quit his post as the BBC's director of future media and technology to become the CEO of Kangaroo, a VOD service that is a commercial joint venture between the BBC, ITV (i.e. the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, the Independent Television Network) and Channel 4, and that is set to launch later this year (note: the launch of the service--which will initially be available via the Internet--is expected to take place in June). He succeeds Lesley MacKenzie, who
has been leading the venture as interim CEO. His new role will see
Highfield leading negotiations with content owners and potential