Digital TV News

OFT approves Project Canvas on-demand TV venture

Thursday 20 May, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has given the BBC and its partners the green light to continue developing Project Canvas, a joint venture that will bring on-demand internet TV to British living rooms.

The OFT said it will not investigate Project Canvas, a joint TV venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva, because the quango feels it doesn’t have “jurisdiction to review the proposal”.

If the venture is launched, 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.

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.

Sheldon Mills, director of mergers at the OFT, said: “The OFT has concluded that Project Canvas ... does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.”

Last year the OFT blocked Project Kangaroo, another on-demand TV venture between ITV, Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide. However, the regulator has made it clear that it views Project Canvas differently.

“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.

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.

Jon Ingram, operations director at Digitalchoices.co.uk, said: “Project Canvas is one step closer to becoming a reality, and consumers are one step closer to getting a digital TV platform that offers them everything.”