Pushes to show Canvas is redundant

Potential competitors continue to give food for thought to the BBC Trust and its final Project Canvas ruling.

From its first submission to the Trust’s public consultations Sky’s view has always been that there is no need for a publicly-funded IPTV standards project (although now of course the BBC is just one of seven contributors overall - but that has not lessened Sky’s protests), and that the market if left alone will develop its own products, and de facto standards.  What is significant however is that in the last few weeks Sky has been busy turning the theory into hard evidence  - which they’ll no doubt be able to wave in the BBC Trust’s face - and striking deals to bring video on demand to the TV screen through third party TV & set top box (STB) manufacturers.  Deals struck so far include 3View, Cello, and one last week with Humax, the UK’s biggest Freeview STB provider. (Humax are also one of Project Canvas’s ’supporters’.)

Yesterday, a ‘David’ added their voice to Sky’s ‘Goliath’ protests. 3View is the maker of a STB that offers HD & SD Freeview channels as well as on demand content such as BBC iPlayer and, yes, Sky Player (the box will be available from the end of May, and will retail for £299 - it is not yet clear how the additional pricing for Sky Player will work). MD John Donovan has said a few interesting things to Digital Spy including the soundbite  “”We do not understand what Canvas’s remit will be and we do not subscribe to the belief that Canvas will provide something the commercial market can’t. We have proved that we can do it.”, and his belief that Canvas will likely be killed by the OFT/Competition Commission in the same way that Kangaroo was (as well as the vague possibility of legal action). It is a convincing story: small privately owned technology company already offering a product that consumers want, but one that will  be duplicated - and made redundant ultimately because of Canvas’ size - come any eventual launch of Canvas STBs.  Enough of a story for the BBC Trust to listen, and consider.

Update - 18 May - I’ve expanded on these thoughts somewhat over in this blog post here.