On-demand TV in the UK set to radically change?

One of the media differences I’ve noticed between the Australian and UK markets is that video on demannd (VoD) actually exists here.  Yes, it’s still in its nascent stages but the main broadcasters are all well into their offerings, be it the BBC iPlayer, or Channel 4’s 4oD.

Today saw an annoucement that sounds like it has great potential: BBC, Channel 4 and ITV are going to launch a single destination for VoD content next year, that will involved a mixture of free, paid, streaming, and downloaded programming from the 3 networks as well as other 3rd party content providers over time.

It means BBC and C4 will probably abandon their own solo VoD efforts to date, but gives ITV their first real VoD look-in. Not sure where Channel 5 is - as one of the articles below says, they are conspicuous by their absence.

TechCrunch UK post.
MediaGuardian article.