Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

A new survey has revealed that faster broadband speeds may not necessarily draw more people online to watch their favourite TV shows.

The YouGov and Deloitte research found that 53% of the 2,123 surveyed would not watch more TV online even if there were faster broadband speeds available.

Furthermore around 29% of those surveyed thought that there was very little importance in being able to watch TV shows online.

It is mainly the younger generation aged between 18 and 34 years who are currently watching web TV on a regular basis.

However, even this group said that if broadband speeds were faster it would be unlikely to affect the length of time they would spend watching their favourite programmes online.

News programmes and comedy are the main types of TV content watched online, whereas just 7% of people surveyed watched reality TV over the internet.

James Bates, the Media and Telecoms partner at Deloitte, said, “Stimulating investment in a next generation broadband infrastructure for Britain has been at the heart of the Digital Britain debate. However, making high speed broadband access widely available to consumers is no guarantee that it will be taken up”.

Orange have confirmed they will not be pursuing their interest in purchasing the assets of Project Kangaroo, the on demand broadband TV service created by BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV.

Earlier in the year it was reported that Orange were in talks to buy Project Kangaroo following the Competition Commission’s decision to block the creators from launching the project themselves.

There have been several companies interested in buying Kangaroo’s assets with Orange being one of the major potential buyers involved.

Orange’s parent company, France Telecom, said, “We can confirm that we are not pursuing our interest in the catch up TV service Kangaroo. After in-depth due diligence, we concluded that it was unlikely that an outcome which benefited France Telecom’s Orange operations would be met.”

It has been said by a source close to Project Kangaroo’s owners that the price of the assets has put several buyers off. The source said, “There were two major bidders but the technology is not cheap. It would be a multi-million pound deal which isn’t the most tempting prospect in the current climate.”

With Kangaroo’s future looking uncertain, the creators are now said to be in talks with Hulu, an American video on demand service that is backed by Disney, News Corp and NBC Universal. They are hoping to launch a UK version of the Hulu platform later in the year.

It is thought that broadband TV could soon overtake traditional TV as one of the main providers of TV programming.

The popularity of broadband TV has increased significantly over the past year due to its flexibility. As broadband speeds are increasing, it is now easier than ever to download movies and watch streaming video online.

New gadgets have also played a part in the popularity of watching streaming media online. The iPhone and newer iPods for example, enable users to watch movies and videos pretty much wherever they are.

Brian Turner, the executive editor of techwatch.co.uk explains, “Nowadays, internet protocol television services are becoming much more mainstream and home video entertainment systems repeatedly try and leverage the internet for a wider service offering.”

The recent Microsoft report known as “Europe Logs on: Internet Trends of Today & Tommorow” suggests that broadband TV will overtake traditional TV by June 2010. That is based on the current growth rate and popularity results in recent surveys.

Virgin Media are one company that knows just how popular broadband television has become. Their broadband TV on demand service is proving to be particularly successful.

They have also just finished testing how effective advertising through broadband TV is. The results found that consumer’s preferred the relevant ads that had been placed before and alongside their favourite programmes.

Overall broadband TV is definitely set to increase in popularity as faster broadband speeds are introduced. It would not be surprising to see broadband TV overtaking traditional TV by this time next year as on demand TV viewing becomes the norm.

Mobile communications provider Orange has confirmed it is examining the possibility of buying the broadband TV technology developed by Project Kangaroo.

Project Kangaroo is the Broadband TV joint venture between ITV, the BBC and Channel 4 that has been stopped by the Competition Commission, despite over £20 million pounds of investment.

With the assets of the company now being sold to recover some of the investment, Orange is one of two companies in talks to buy the technology behind it.

A spokesman for Orange said, “We are examining this company and we see of course that it could be interesting. Nothing has been decided but we can confirm we are examining it.”

Should Orange end up buying the Project Kangaroo technology, it is thought that the company will use it to expand its broadband TV service throughout Europe. In particular, they are planning to use it in France where there are currently more than one million subscribers to its Orange TV service.

A France Telecom spokesman said: “On Orange TV we are very cautious about what we are saying in the UK, but it could help us in developing more quickly Orange TV projects in France.”

Orange had been looking to launch Orange TV within the UK, however due to the current economic downturn, its plans were put on hold.

A trial consumer group was reportedly ready to test the new service in the UK but they have now been advised that the project has been temporarily cancelled.