BBC hops over cross-channel iPlayer antitrust

The BBC, the BBC informs us, is thinking of sharing its iPlayer technology with its soon-to-be-extraterrestrial rivals, ITV and Channel 4. According to Mark Thompson, Auntie should "share the benefits of its scale and security with the rest of the industry".

Clearly, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with the Competition Commission effectively killing off Project Kangaroo on the basis that it would hammer the wider video-on-demand industry in a particularly unfair way. Project Kangaroo was, er, a version of the iPlayer to be shared between the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. We know this piece of very recent history to be irrelevant because the BBC's coverage of its own media-player largesse does not once mention it.

This, kids, is apparently how you squirm round antitrust accusations. As a friend just quipped: "What's that, Skippy? You've been branded anti-competitive?"