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Media
Free-to-air IPTV box coming soon, possibly
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 26 August 2009
A senior BBC exec has told Digital Spy that he reckons so called Canvas boxes could be available as early as next year. As previously reported, Canvas is an initiative involving most of the UK’s terrestrial TV broadcasters and BT aiming to bring IPTV – so television delivered over the internet – into the living room via a set-top box, in much the same way as the on-demand component of the existing BT Vision service.
Rather than being an IPTV service in itself, the aim with Canvas is to agree protocols for how telly-over-the-net should be delivered. The idea is that anyone using those protocols could then make IPTV services available to the owners of Canvas-enabled set-top boxes, rather than the provider of the box controlling what content is available via the unit, as is the case with existing set-top box based on-demand telly services.
Any project that involves the BBC, ITV and Five working together leads to competition concerns – as previously reported, attempts by BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 to launch a combined on-demand platform, working title Project Kangaroo, were blocked by the Competition Commission, despite it being quite a consumer-friendly proposition.
There are opponents to Canvas (Sky in particular), and the BBC Trust, who must approve the Corporation’s involvement in the venture, stepped up their investigations of the plans earlier this year so to consider the competition implications. They have set a deadline of 1 Sep for anyone wishing to make a submission to their investigation.
But the Beeb’s Programme Director IPTV, Richard Halton, remains optimistic that the Trust will ultimately approve the Canvas project, allowing compliant set top boxes to be on the market as soon as next year.
He told Digital Spy: “Freeview has always been about presenting people with choice as a free option and I think next year we will see a lot of activity in the pay TV sector, so free-to-air platforms offering competitive choice to consumers is really important. That is why for us 2010 is really important”.
He continued: “If Canvas is successful, then it represents a massive opportunity for content providers, particularly new players who will never get anywhere near the television because of the costs of doing something on a linear channel. We hope that the message for content provider and service providers is that this is very exciting and a real opportunity. The feedback we have had from indies, studios and content retailers of all description has been really positive. Normally it’s a question of ‘when can we get going?’ or ‘what do we do next to get on the platform?’ Which is great”.
