UK’s BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV plan to launch a new video-on-demand service, Kangaroo, offering more than 10,000 hours of TV programming. The project aims to be a “rich entertainment site”, where consumers can catch up with recently aired shows and older archive programming.

In a joint statement, the partners said Kangaroo “will work independently as an aggregator of both joint venture partners and third-party content”.

The service will initially be available via the web, with shows available either streamed or to download. The Kangaroo media player will “build on the experience” of the broadcasters’ existing media players, ITV.com, 4oD and the BBC iPlayer.

That doesn’t bode well for the service, as the proliferation of proprietary players has been a barrier to adoption for mainstream Internet video offerings.

“The joint service venture has the potential to become an important shop window for UK broadcaster content and a free destination for viewers,” said Michael Grade, the executive chairman of ITV.

In order to do this, though, the organizations will have to provide enough content, on multiple platforms, to give users a compelling reason to install and try the custom player.

via Guardian