Sunday 18 May 2008

KANGAROO HOPS INTO U.K.


KANGAROO HOPS INTO U.K.

Kangaroo yes, but not the grey marsupial kind is slowly hopping into our lives.
With Freesat slowly taking steps into our sitting rooms we can expect the joint efforts of all broadcasters taking part in the conglomeration of another channel platform named Kangaroo.
Kangaroo has been under scrutiny for some time for various reasons as more and more internet users expect more and more return for their internet fee and it stands to reason somewhere along the line something would give, hence Kangaroo was contrived for everybody.
From the plan of BT in the U.K. of extending and updating "big time", the internet platforms(hopefully by 2011) throughout the U.K. to "specific", pay to view at the press of a button and not pay to view as a "ball and chain", round viewers necks for a contract with no "get out clause", and a so called helpline at "premium rate", prices.
The idea eventually of paying for a "one of", event seems more palatable to accept although it would taste much sweeter if it was free as we already pay for a TV licence.
Kangaroo will come from all programme providers in the U.K. and hopefully a few more to give only the best type of entertainment so little wonder other European countries are hopping onto this particular bandwaggon.
When Freesat and viewers with TVR's (television video recorders with Freesat metadata ability) for Freesat get into full swing gone will be the load on the servers but at a cost still to be decided as sensible. With the new TVR we could easily see Push-Video as another new type medium which will spread the downloads into your TVR and from there you select your viewing with no server hassle or internet time delay.
At the moment the scenario reads those on a capped internet maximum of 4gbs per month can only watch around 40 hours of video and less for HD which is ludicrous for example; film buffs who will only get 20 films per month before their internet cap steps in. The average viewer will watch around 150 hours per month so a little hint for the TVR manufacturers here...the hard disc can never be big enough! The BBC video stream of around 100mb per hour will change with the new metadata so this will improve speed and download ability.You have to consider the next awful step and that is of course tiered internet rates which may be good for the consumer but not in the long term as we again see similar situations when we get involved with contracts.
Kangaroo is another TV life changer which will soon be with us, for the good? it must be or they wouldn't have spent so much time and effort developing it.
Is it news to you ? then you read it here first!

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