Digital Intelligence

YouView is set for launch in the UK next month after much delay, but the web TV service might still be hampered by a lack of availability of set top boxes, according to a news report. YouView chairman Lord Sugar and CEO Richard Halton are to officially launch the IPTV joint venture on July 4. However, according to the Financial Times, set-top boxes will not be widely available until later this year as manufacturers plan to conduct further tests.

Watch the launch video here:

29/06/2012  |  Full story...

The BBC and other UK broadcasters have hired Lord Alan Sugar to attempt to save the embattled YouView internet-connected set top box venture. The business entrepreneur and star of TVs ‘The Apprentice’ was brought on board two weeks ago with a mandate to “cure or kill” the venture.

25/03/2011

25/03/2011  |  Full story...

The launch of web TV service IPTV service YouView has been delayed until early 2012 due to the ‘growing scale and complexity of the project’. YouView (formely known as Project Canvas) will let viewers with broadband enabled sets access to video-on-demand content from BBC ITV and C4, in partnership with technology firms Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk.

The service was originally scheduled in to go live in the first half of 2011 but the joint venture will have a product in trial by the end of 2011, with a full consumer launch to follow by early 2012.
The service was announced as Project Canvas in December 2008 with the aim of bringing IPTV to UK households via broadband-enabled set-top boxes, in much the same way as Freeview and Freesat currently do with digital TV.

10/02/2011

10/02/2011  |  Full story...

Ofcom will not investigate YouView, despite claims from rivals that the TV-on-demand scheme from BBC, ITV, C4 and Five is anti-competitive. However, You View, previously know as Project Canvas was warned that the communications watchdog will act if it blocks rival platforms and services in future.

YouView is a collaboration of seven broadcasters and telecommunication companies including BBC, ITV, BT and TalkTalk. It plans to use a branded interface to bring on-demand web services to set-top boxes. Set to launch next year, YouView will develop a standard framework from which broadcasters and other providers can build TV-accessible online services, such as BBC iPlayer, and which hardware makers can incorporate.

20/10/2010

20/10/2010  |  Full story...

UK online TV platform YouView, previously known as project canvas, has dismissed claims it will damage investment in the fledgling UK IPTV market. YouView, the on-demand TV service backed by BBC ITV, BT and Channel 4, is set to launch as a beta test in the first quarter of next year. The site aims to bring video-on-demand programming and services to Freeview and Freesat.

The company said many people in the UK’s technology start-up community see YouView as an opportunity to put their content and applications before a wider audience, because it shifts the best of the internet from the PC to the living-room TV set. But several local television companies, a set-top box manufacturer and Virgin Media have written to Ofcom asking the media regulator to investigate YouView, which is backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva.

02/10/2010

04/10/2010  |  Full story...

Project Canvas, the on-demand TV service backed by BBC ITV, BT and Channel 4, has offially rebranded as YouView, and is set to launch as a beta test in the first quarter of next year.The site aims to bring video-on-demand programming and services to Freeview and Freesat.

From next year viewers will have the choice of a subscription-free YouView set top box that will combine their favourite digital TV channels with the last seven days' catch up TV, as well as bringing a full range of on-demand services and interactive extras straight to the living room. The seven partners in the venture, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, TalkTalk, BT, Arqiva and Channel 5 – have now formed YouView TV Ltd, pledging about £18m each to cover the first four years of operation from April 2010.

16/09/2010

16/09/2010  |  Full story...

Channel Five has reversed its decision, made only six weeks ago, to pull out of the UK television industry’s project to allow consumers to see video programmes via the internet. Project Canvas now includes again all the terrestrial broadcasters – the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 remained involved when Channel Five left for financial reasons last month – as well as BT, Carphone Warehouse and the infrastructure owner Arqiva. It is looking for further partners.

The reversal was expected following the purchase of Five by Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell group from RTL, the pan-European broadcaster, earlier this month. “Project Canvas is set to shape the future of broadcasting and open up new and exciting possibilities for viewers,” Mr Desmond said in a statement on Tuesday.

01/09/2010

01/09/2010  |  Full story...

Virgin Media has lodged a complaint with Ofcom, aimed at halting the BBC-backed video-on-demand service Project Canvas. The cable giant says the project, which is developing common standards for net TV in the UK, is anti-competitive. BT, Channel 4 and ITV are partners alongside the BBC.

It was given the green light in May, when the Office of Fair Trading ruled it was not a merger, but Virgin Media said it could destroy the online TV market. It said the collaboration between the three most prominent public service broadcasters would "significantly and irreparably harm" the TV sector. Describing it as the "national health glasses" of the TV world, Virgin said it would stifle innovation.

04/08/2010

04/08/2010  |  Full story...

Project Canvas, the online TV project involving BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk given approval from the BBC Trust, providing the project sticks to certain agreements. The news follows the go-ahead by the Office of Fair Trading last month.

Concerning a partnership between BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk the BBC Trust gave its approval after extensive consultation. It will now review the BBC's involvement in Project Canvas twelve months after it's launched to consumers.

28/06/2010

28/06/2010  |  Full story...