Digital TV News

Virgin Media calls on Project Canvas to be ‘genuinely open’

Monday 21 June, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Cable TV giant Virgin Media has rebuked on-demand internet TV venture Project Canvas and called on it to be more inclusive.

Virgin Media, the UK’s largest cable TV provider, has said it would like to incorporate Project Canvas technology into its new set-top boxes.

Project Canvas, a joint TV venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva, aims to offer a next-generation Freeview platform, with access to internet TV services.

If the on-demand TV project is launched successfully, it will allow users to watch catch-up TV on services like the BBC iPlayer and 4oD, as well as the standard TV channels on Freeview, and internet TV services such as BT Vision and TalkTalk TV via an internet-connected set-top box.

Chief executive of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett, said in the Guardian that the TV, phone and broadband provider stood “squarely behind Project Canvas”, but added that the partners refused Virgin Media’s offer to include Canvas on the Virgin Media platform.

Project Canvas told Virgin Media that if the cable giant wanted to use the Canvas service, it must do so through the Canvas interface, rather than through Virgin’s set-top boxes.

Berkett argued that the venture should be more open, and said: “Far from simplifying the digital world, Canvas will complicate it.” He did not rule out Virgin Media’s involvement with Project Canvas entirely however.

Virgin Media has plans to launch a new TiVo set-top box later in the year, which will reportedly offer similar TV functionality to that proposed by Project Canvas.

Project Canvas was originally criticised by broadcasters Sky, Virgin Media and some TV manufacturers, which all claimed the service was a misuse of the BBC’s licence fee. They all submitted complaints to the OFT, but the regulator has now decided it is not within its remit to investigate the venture.

Project Canvas now only needs the BBC Trust, the broadcaster’s governing body, to approve its plans before being given the final go-ahead. The Trust granted Project Canvas provisional approval in December last year.