• BBC, Monday, October 31, 2011 12:14 PM

Are you familiar with SeeSaw, the British streaming TV service? Well, after less than two years online, the site’s been shut down. What happened? Despite offering solid content from BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, Channel Five and several production companies, experts tell BBC News that the business was done in by bigger online video players. It also didn’t help when Channel 4 pulled its content in September. In February 2010, SeeSaw was created by the media services company Arqiva.

According to BBC News, “It used assets from the aborted catch-up TV platform, Project Kangeroo, which had been rejected by the UK's competition regulator.” It offered a range of free-to-watch programs supported by advertising, as well as a premium pay-to-watch service. In January, Arqiva put the service up for "strategic review," leading to the sale of a 75% stake six months later. Then, this past summer, a group of investors led by San Francisco-based Criterion Capital Partners -- which also own the social network Bebo -- took a majority stake in the business.

Read the whole story at BBC »