(cc) by totalAldo/flickrThe Independent reports that Ashley Highfield has announced his intention to make MSN the 'home of online television'.

Highfield has recently joined Microsoft UK, previously having been head of 'Future Media' at the BBC, and briefly being head of the failed commercial video venture, codenamed Kangaroo, which BBC Worldwide (the BBC's commercial arm), ITV and Channel 4 had intended to launch as a joint-venture to deliver video direct-to-consumer online after their free catch-up windows. He's widely credited with delivering very successful refreshed of the BBC's online properties, not just with the staggeringly successful iPlayer, but also with the refresh of bbc.co.uk with its focus on simplicity and user personalisation.

Dismissing YouTube cruelly (but reasonably fairly) as overrun by 'cats on skateboards', he believes that a site dedicated to quality content will be able to attract significant advertising potential. DCU welcomes the idea that such big players are getting behind the idea of quality content online, and an if-you-build-it-they-will-come investment attitude. A couple of roadblocks could be the slow adoption of Silverlight, Microsoft's alternative to flash that it is pushing aggressively as the next-generation platform for online video, as well as the question of whether Microsoft stepping in to pick up the reins is what the Competition Commission had in mind when it said no to Kangaroo on the basis it would be a monopoly that would distort the market! But with Highfield at the helm, MSN is sure to have a few innovations up its sleeve.