Five in running for Kangaroo brief

Video-on-demand service Kangaroo is believed to have whittled its hunt for a media agency down to five for a potential £4m media planning and buying account still waiting for approval.

Its surreptitious hunt for a media agency emerged at the end of last year and since then creativebrief has been veting interested parties for campaign work with a speculative April start.

Shortlisted agencies are believed to be Media Planning Group, Mediaedge:cia, Mindshare, OMD and Vizeum.

The joint venture VoD service from BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 has hired the services of agency broker creativebrief in anticipation of receiving clearance to launch by the Competition Commission next month.

Kangaroo's backers, which hope to offer both free-to-view ad-supported content as well as paid-for downloads, are thought to be lining up all possible marketing suppliers, including a creative agency, to ensure they can launch as soon as regulatory approval is finally given.

A spokesman declined to comment while an official review is being carried out.

But many industry analysts expect a modified service to help combat the commission's fears that the project could lead to a "substantial lessening of competition" in the UK VoD market.

Its push to appoint a media agency could signal Kangaroo management's confidence that it will gain approval to launch from the Competition Commission.

The Commission is set to publish its final report by 8 February.

Since the publication of the Commission's provisional report into Kangaroo in December, Virgin Media, as well as online VoD services Babelgum and Joost, have called for Kangaroo to be prohibited from launching.

In its response, Virgin Media said: "The Competition Commission has no realistic alternative but to prohibit the proposed transaction."

Meanwhile, Joost has urged the Commission to "consider seriously" prohibiting Kangaroo on the basis that the relevant parties could compete effectively in the VoD market without having to combine.