(cc) by skenmy/flickr

Battlefront is a site that brings together campaigners - whatever they are campaigning for - and invites them to create short, to-the-point videos to creatively put across their message. The aim is to empower young people to start their own campaigns, and get involved in movements for change. By putting the responsibility in their hands, it engages in a way that top-down messages simply can't, and aims to get a new generation thinking about how they want their world to be.

Created by Raw Television, Airlock and Channel 4 (and accompanied by a C4 series of the same name), the slick site puts video front and centre, with content at the fore, backed up by significant resources in the form of a campaigning handbook and expert advice. It's just been announced that the site has been nominated for a Digital Emmy.

(cc) by spaceodissey/flickrThe Past: What was Kangaroo? Project Kangaroo was (a codename for) a proposed service offered by a joint venture company formed by BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm), ITV and Channel 4, in order to deliver a next-generation online VOD platform. Similar in function to the BBC iPlayer, and likely to rely on the same technology as its foundation, it would have allowed these players, and others that joined up on a more ad hoc basis, to commercialise their catalogue programming. It would be financed by subscription, pay per view, advertising, or a combination of these, direct from the consumer. In the case of the BBC, this would happen only after the end of the seven-day 'catch-up' window during which programmes are free to view on iPlayer. It is thought that Channel 4 had intended to close its own service, 4oD (4 on Demand), though it seems likely that ITV would continue to use ITV.com as a destination site, including its own videos.