SeeSaw shut down
Plug pulled
UK video-on-demand service SeeSaw has closed down.
Founder Arqiva, the company that owns and runs Britain's terrestrial digital TV transmission infrastructure, put SeeSaw up for sale in January 2011.
Unable to find a buyer, it announced the service's closure would take place the following June. At the eleventh hour, Arqiva pulled in a consortium of banks, venture capitalists and private equity firms to whom it sold 75 per cent of the IPTV company.
Clearly the input of new money - not to mention the appointment of one-time Channel 4 chief Michael Jackson - was not enough to ensure SeeSaw's survival.
Its website now says simply: "Thanks for your support but SeeSaw is no longer available."
Arqiva has not yet responded to our request for details
SeeSaw offered free catch-up content from the likes of the BBC and Channel 4 - some of it advertising funded; viewers could also pay to have the ads turned off - plus pay-to-view material.
All of which is fine if you're happy watching on a PC, but not if you like to view your television on a TV. SeeSaw desperately needed deals with Smart TV vendors to get its content on their products and with set-top box makers. All it drummed up was an "experimental" presence on pricey UK Boxee boxes.
Arqiva acquired what would become SeeSaw when it bought up the assets of Project Kangaroo, a joint BBC, ITV and C4 endeavour to create a standard catch-up TV platform, killed by the UK's competition regulator.
While Arqiva was using Kangaroo tech top build SeeSaw, the broadcasters created Project Canvas, later renamed YouView, to create a standard IPTV platform. ®
COMMENTS
No wonder!
No one should pay for TV they have already paid for. All the BBC's output was paid for with the TV license.
Although what really bugs me is that stuff like Father Ted (I know, not BBC and supported by adverts) was only available paid for, where this is available for free on Hulu (supported by adverts) in the USA.
I would rather pay for HMA than SeeSaw as there is more on Hulu than on SeeSaw.
Rip of Britain again.
From what i saw of SeaSaw it was awful. I use boxee on a number of PCs and i dont think i ever got to the end of a programme due to buffering or something else going wrong.
Also, having to pay for BBC content is a big no no!
aside from other issues
Seesaw is just a bad idea for a name... I remember people saying they got "seesawed" after loosing money in day trades...
like bad verbal Feng-Shui
Writing on the wall a long time ago
The writing was on the wall a long time ago, even well before the 11th hour buyout. Dwindling content was the biggest sign, to the point where last week the site was so empty of it the average visitor would have thought there was a technical error. "Latest content" panels empty and category after category coming up as "Nothing found".
Some Info...
The BBC content on Seesaw was from BBC Worldwide which is the commercial arm of the BBC.
They are the one's that sell things such as the BBC Dvd's and run BBC America and resell BBC content around the world.
The BBC content that Seesaw had was not available on BBC or iplayer and was archive content thats why you had to "pay" (watch a few adverts).
On a side note most of Seesaw's advertising revenue went to the content provider.
