YouView

Project Canvas is the working title for an attempt to create an open, internet-connected television platform built on common standards, by the United Kingdom's terrestrial broadcasters BBC, Channel 4, ITV plc, Five and communications companies Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk.

The partners intend to form a venture to promote the platform to consumers and the content, service and developer community. A consumer brand (not Canvas) will be created, and licensed to device manufacturers, and internet service providers who meet the specifications. The Financial Times revealed that the name YouView was the likely moniker, having been registered as Intellectual Property by the group of broadcasters. Canvas-compliant devices (e.g. set-top boxes), built to a common technical standard, would provide seamless access to a range of third-party services through a common, simple, user experience.

There are three main elements to the project: setting the technical standard, building the technical platform, and creating the user experience.

Partners

Project Canvas was initially announced on 11 December 2008 as a partnership between the BBC, BT and ITV plc.

On 30 July 2009, Project Canvas announced that Five had signed up to the project. On 16 December 2009, Project Canvas announced that Channel 4 and TalkTalk had also signed up to the project.

The six partners invited any further expressions of interest from companies interested in becoming part of the joint venture. The canvas partners proposed that all prospective venture partners should be granted an equal proportion of shares in the new joint venture company. Interested parties had until the 23 April 2010 to express their interest.

On 22 March 2010, Canvas welcomed transmission firm Arqiva as an equal partner in the project. At the same time, the Project Canvas partners submitted analysis to the Office of Fair Trading setting out why the proposed Canvas joint venture does not constitute a qualifying merger under the Enterprise Act 2002. On 19 May 2010, the OFT confirmed that it would not investigate Project Canvas over competition issues. As none of the partners were contributing a "pre-existing business" to Project Canvas, the OFT ruled that it "did not have the jurisdiction" to investigate the venture on competition grounds. "Unlike in the Project Kangaroo joint venture which was blocked by the Competition Commission in 2009, it is not proposed that the joint venture partners will contribute any video-on-demand content or other business to [Project] Canvas, and Canvas will have no role in aggregating, marketing or directly retailing any such television content," said the OFT. The OFT also said that it found that none of the partners would have a "material influence" over the policy of the venture – the "lowest level of control that may give rise to a relevant merger situation".

On 17 May 2010, Project Canvas director Richard Halton said "We have also put out an invitation for an eighth partner and we would like a company that can add scale and expertise to the platform. It is a question of finding an organization that shares the aims of the venture."

BBC Trust approval

On 26 February 2009, the BBC Trust launched a public consultation on the BBC Executive's proposal (Project Canvas) to develop a joint venture partnership to help enable the delivery of internet protocol television (IPTV), which would allow viewers to watch on-demand services, via television sets.

On 22 December 2009, the BBC Trust gave provisional approval to the BBC's involvement in Project Canvas after ruling that the likely public value of the proposal justifies any potential negative market impact. A period of consultation on the provisional conclusions closed on 2 February 2010, the Trust will now reach its final decision. The BBC Trust has revealed that Project Canvas will cost over £115m in its first four years of operation.

Main conditions of provisional approval

• Industry engagement – the core technical specification must be published well in advance of launch to allow all manufacturers to adapt to the Canvas standard. The BBC must report to the Trust within twelve months of final approval or within three months of launch, whichever is the sooner, and at regular intervals on its progress in achieving industry consensus around technical standards.
• Access to the platform for content providers – must be on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, with minimal technical requirements and content standards and access charges calculated on a cost recovery basis.
• Access for ISPs - any quality standards for ISPs should again be set and applied on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. This is designed to keep barriers to entry for ISPs to a minimum and avoid the proposal being linked to any one provider or service.
• Syndication – a Trust review, twelve months after launch, to assess what, if any, effects Canvas has on the partners’ incentives to syndicate their content to other platforms.
• Free-to-air – it must always to be possible to access the Canvas platform without a subscription.
• Accessibility and usability – one year after launch, the BBC must report to the Trust on whether the proposed accessibility features, such as audio description, have been incorporated. At that point the Trust will also review signposting of content and parental controls, which we have asked Canvas to provide where possible.
• Cost – the BBC must return for further Trust approval should costs incurred by the Corporation exceed (or be expected to exceed) the Executive's projections by more than 20 per cent in any one year.
• An independent audit must be carried out of relevant BBC research and development spending in order to verify that pre-launch Canvas-related BBC expenditure costs have been or will be shared equally between the partners.
• Where the BBC has already or proposes to frontload project spending by making initial commercial loans to the other Canvas partners, loans should also be available to the other or any new partners of the same creditworthiness on commercial terms.
• BBC involvement in Canvas must be kept operationally separate from its involvement in Freesat and Freeview.

Comments

Following the BBC's proposal in February 2009 there have been comments by a number of organisations and companies which have been published by the BBC in a 392 page document. The BBC Trust reached its provisional conclusions following more than 800 written responses.

The UK's Intellect Technology Association, said in a submission to the BBC Trust that Project Canvas risks isolating the UK as a "technological island" in a global market by trying to create a standard IPTV set-top box for just the UK.

British Sky Broadcasting has continuously, strongly criticised the project funding, saying that public money will be used to give public service broadcasters a foothold in the valuable IPTV, to the disadvantage of "the private sector". BSkyB is likely to raise state aid complaints if it appears that the BBC is shouldering the costs of developing the venture for its partners.

On 4 February 2010, The Guardian learned that in a submission to the BBC Trust as part of a final consultation on Project Canvas, the Digital TV Group said that there is "widespread concern" that the venture's partners are developing critical technology standards that do not involve key players such as set top-box manufacturers and TV makers. The DTG argue that the BBC Trust's provisional approval document does not contain a "clear and unequivocal condition" that Project Canvas will have to work with industry and there appears to be a "parallel process" taking place where Project Canvas and its preferred technology partners are developing a separate standard.

Morgan Stanley compiled a creative analysis for BT about the potential impact of Canvas, describing it as "Freeview 2.0". Morgan Stanley noted that the BBC Trust will reach a final decision on the BBC's Canvas involvement at the end of March. If it gives the full green light, then the platform could enter launch phase by the end of the year or in early 2011. However, Morgan Stanley noted that any launch date would be dependent on the completion of major technical work, such as locking down specifications with manufacturers and also creating a workable electronic programming guide. Morgan Stanley expects that Canvas set-top boxes will cost between £150 and £200. The report predicts that an App Store-style resource could be introduced to Canvas in the future, along with the integration of social networks such as Twitter. As Canvas will be an open platform, the report noted that content providers would no longer need to pay the current sum of around £10m for capacity on digital terrestrial television to reach their target audience. Internet service providers would also benefit from the service due an increased consumer demand for fixed broadband packages, along with greater opportunities to sell more expensive tariffs for high definition streaming. Storing popular programmes on local Canvas drives would also ease the burden of heavy streaming traffic over broadband networks. Considering outstanding issues facing the project, Morgan Stanley said: "Canvas looks pro-competitive (breaking down platform barriers for content owners), but some media companies could still try to challenge its creation. "It looks unlikely that this could freeze launch however as content is not being aggregated and the BBC shareholding will be only 16.6%."

On 4 March 2010, The Daily Telegraph learned that Neil Berkett, Virgin Media's chief executive, would tell the Cable Congress in Brussels "the BBC Trust's consultation has been a shameless whitewash that contravenes almost every principle of good regulation." Mr Berkett objects to proposals to force all broadcasters to use a single 'Project Canvas' brand controlled by the BBC and its partners, which he claims will penalise commercial rivals. "The BBC Trust has stubbornly ignored all requests to address our concerns by imposing safeguards to prevent the BBC emerging as de facto gatekeeper of the digital world. This is a blatant demonstration that the Trust is incapable of regulating the BBC's activities in an objective way." On 28 April 2010, Neil Berkett confirmed that Virgin Media had made a submission to the Office of Fair Trading over Project Canvas. "Canvas needs to be an open platform but it is closed and will require a [second] dedicated set-top box," said Berkett. "We will oppose it vigorously if it is not an open world at large for customers to take advantage of. [The current proposals] are asking pay-TV customers to buy a second set-top box." He added that he considered it a misuse of the licence fee to create a product that was not accessible to all the public. "It is funded by the BBC licence fee and should be available everywhere, on a Virgin Box, a PS3 and even a Sky box," he said. "I find it extraordinary that it looks like the BBC Trust is endorsing what is a closed product. It is inappropriate for the BBC to be doing this."

On 5 March 2010, in a Q&A session at the DTG Summit, Richard Halton, programme director for Project Canvas, faced criticism from Digital TV Group members about the lack of published technical specifications for the platform. In response, he asked members to appreciate the "tough and pretty challenging" schedule exerted on the project. However, Halton acknowledged the DTG's desire for more effective engagement with Canvas, and committed to publishing the remaining key technical documents by the end of May.

On 19 April 2010, 3view managing director John Donovan has said that he is "concerned" about the potential market impact of IPTV joint venture Project Canvas. "The honest answer is that no-one has spoken to me from the BBC about what Canvas will entail. 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," he told Digital Spy. Donovan declined to be drawn on whether 3view would consider a legal challenge to Canvas, but did say that his business will defend its ability to compete in the market. "I think we would have to reserve comment [on possible legal action]. But at this stage, clearly, we will protect our business at all costs. And I think, we will just have to leave it there for the moment."

Development

On 13 November 2009, BBC Future Media & Technology director Erik Huggers previewed the work-in-progress user interface that could power the Project Canvas at C21 Media’s FutureMedia conference in London. The mock-up of how the Olympic Games would look on Canvas allowed users to watch highlights instantly, send clips to friends, monitor what’s being said on Twitter, access archives at the touch of a button and use commercial third party applications and services.

Following the BBC Trust's provisional approval of the BBC's participation, the partners will form a new joint venture to develop the technical specification for devices with standards body the Digital TV Group, create and market a new consumer brand, build a common user experience, and build the technology platform. All technical specifications must be clearly published to allow manufacturers to adapt to the new Canvas standard.

The BBC is working with three partners (Thomson SA, Humax and Cisco Systems) from the consumer device manufacturing sector on the development of the Canvas core technical specifications. The relationships have NDAs, non-binding collaboration agreements and agreements ensuring any IP the trio develop can be shared with the industry. On 5 March 2010, in a Q&A session at the DTG Summit, Richard Halton, programme director for Project Canvas, confirmed that Canvas now has direct collaboration relationships with various manufacturers and industry players - including Cisco, Thomson SA's Technicolor, Humax, Intel Corporation, LG Group and Broadcom - and Halton stressed that collaboration with the DTG is "absolutely critical" to the project's future success.

The system will offer access to the broadcasters’ own VOD, but has also promised to offer a software developers’ kit (SDK) to encourage internet content on to the screen. Canvas has also promised to offer payment mechanisms to content owners that wish to charge for their content.

Speaking on 25 February 2010, BT Vision chief executive Marc Watson, announced that the project is targeting a commercial launch within the next 12 months, initially aimed at the UK's 10 million Freeview households as a starting point. Open technical standards required for third-party developers to create services for the Canvas platform will be published in the summer. He added that a management group, called The Venture, would run the platform in a neutral, non-discriminatory way, and that should BSkyB wish to take part, it would apply to this body, which is not influenced by individual corporate considerations.

On 7 May 2010, Project Canvas submitted key documents to the Digital Television Group, making the next set of technical specifications available to industry. The publication of these documents is in addition to Project Canvas partners’ active participation in the DTG Connected TV working groups. The result of this DTG work will be the publication of the UK Connected TV Specification: D-Book 7 by December 2010. In addition to the previously available Consumer Device Platform Specification and Broadcast Content Delivery Specification, further documents were published in the members’ area of the DTG web site including the Consumer Device Software Management Specification, IP Content Delivery Specification and System Metadata Model.

See also

• Kangaroo A potential video on demand platform intended to offer content from BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV plc. It was blocked by the UK Competition Commission.
• Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HBB TV)

External links

• Project Canvas Homepage
• Project Canvas: What is it all about? an article about Project Canvas on Tech Radar