Five comes back to Project Canvas
The partners in Project Canvas today announced that Channel Five will be re-joining the proposed joint venture, following Five’s recent acquisition by Northern & Shell.
Due to be incorporated this Summer, the Project Canvas joint venture, already backed by the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva is currently stepping up its industry engagement to launch a consumer product in 2011.
Northern & Shell Chairman, Richard Desmond, said:
“Project Canvas is set to shape the future of broadcasting and open up new and exciting possibilities for viewers. This is important to the future of Channel Five and having an open internet-connected TV platform fits closely with our plans to bring brilliant new content and interactive services to viewers. We’re delighted to renew Channel Five’s commitment to supporting Project Canvas following a review of our digital strategy.”
Richard Halton, Director, Project Canvas, said:
“Channel Five has already made a major contribution to Project Canvas and we’re delighted to have them back on board. This is great recognition of how important Canvas is to the future of television.”
Project Canvas will see the creation of a standards based, open internet-connected TV environment to offer viewers seamless access to both linear and video-on-demand, web-based content, HD, and interactive services over the internet direct to the TV.
“YouView” unveiled as the future of television
Richard Halton announced as Chief Executive Officer
YouView is today revealed as the brand that will bring a new free-to-air internet-connected TV service to UK homes next year.
The seven partners behind Project Canvas have today announced the formation of YouView TV Ltd as well as the appointment of its new CEO, Richard Halton.1
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.
Halton takes responsibility for the new company with immediate effect, working alongside Kip Meek, who was appointed Chairman in August.2
“YouView is a brilliant new subscription-free TV service which combines the best TV with on demand services and internet content. I am delighted to be leading the team who will make it a reality and think it will change the way we watch TV forever,” said Halton.
“We are creating an exciting consumer brand which will stand for a better TV experience for UK homes. Connected TV creates all kinds of creative possibilities, for existing networks as well as local services and new developers of interactive applications. It all adds up to great news for TV audiences. I look forward to working closely with the creative and developer communities to open up exciting possibilities for viewers to discover and enjoy content in new ways.”
Kip Meek, said:
“YouView is key to ensuring that everyone in the UK benefits from next-generation TV and the UK has a competitive market. Viewers will get more choice whilst broadcasters and content providers both national and local will get a fantastic new means of finding audiences.”
YouView, which expects to launch in the first half of next year, will introduce a programme guide that goes backwards as well as forwards. This will enable people to easily see what’s on now alongside everything they’ve missed in the last 7 days, including programmes from broadcasters like the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and five, which already have an on demand offering.
Set top boxes will include a Personal Video recorder so viewers can pause live TV or record an entire series at the touch of a button.
Viewers will also be able to simply search for the kind of programmes they like by genre, interest or locality, including films, sports and new content from the internet. Plans to offer an applications store will also give viewers new types of services and levels of interactivity with their favourite programmes.
YouView set top boxes will be available for a one-off fee, with no contract. They may be offered at special rates as part of new or improved broadband packages. To get the full range of on-demand and interactive services, viewers will need a broadband connection from their chosen internet service provider.
Notes to editors
1. Youview is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, TalkTalk, Arqiva and Five and is incorporated as Youview TV Limited. For further information please go to www.youview.com
2. Richard Halton has led the development of Project Canvas from the start, achieving widespread industry support from device manufacturers to content producers for the proposals.
Previously Halton led the BBC’s Corporate Strategy team responsible for emerging platform and commercial strategy and has been instrumental in developing the BBC’s editorial, technology and business strategy over the last ten years. He led the BBC’s ‘Creative Future’ strategy for the Director General in 2005 and prior to that was Controller TV Strategy, responsible for the development of the BBC’s suite of digital TV services. He is also a former board member of Freeview.
Industry gets behind Project Canvas
Project Canvas confirmed today that it has received widespread interest from industry in response to its invitation to develop and bring Canvas devices to market in 2011.
More than forty organisations have expressed their support for the Project Canvas proposals to bring consumers standards based, internet-connected TV devices that will change the way they watch television.
These represent a broad range of consumer device manufacturers including set-top-boxes, internet-enabled TVs and recorders.
Project Canvas has been developing the core technical specifications to support the launch of the first consumer equipment, through close engagement with the Digital Television Group (DTG) and its members. The technical documents have also been published today on the Project Canvas web site in the ‘Industry and Technology’ section.
“The response from industry has been phenomenal, and we’re really excited by the strong desire to work with Project Canvas to bring internet-enabled set-top-boxes and TVs into people’s homes next year, said Richard Halton, Director, Project Canvas. “For us, this is a great endorsement of our open approach to working with industry partners.”
“Consumers need the assurance that they will get the best experience, whatever device they buy. This industry engagement programme will ensure that high standards of quality will be deep rooted throughout all of our supported products. We look forward to working with further manufacturers as we roll out more phases of this programme.”
Project Canvas is currently evaluating responses from the consumer device manufacturers that have expressed an interest. Those that are selected will be taken through to the next stage of the evaluation process by the end of the month.
The ambition is to continue to extend the Project Canvas partner programme by bringing on board more and more device partners over time to give consumers the widest possible range of Canvas devices next year.
Due to be incorporated this Summer, the Project Canvas joint venture, is backed by the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, TalkTalk, Arqiva and Five.
Five comes back to Project Canvas
The partners in Project Canvas today announced that Channel Five will be re-joining the proposed joint venture, following Five’s recent acquisition by Northern & Shell.
Due to be incorporated this Summer, the Project Canvas joint venture, already backed by the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva is currently stepping up its industry engagement to launch a consumer product in 2011.
Northern & Shell Chairman, Richard Desmond, said:
“Project Canvas is set to shape the future of broadcasting and open up new and exciting possibilities for viewers. This is important to the future of Channel Five and having an open internet-connected TV platform fits closely with our plans to bring brilliant new content and interactive services to viewers. We’re delighted to renew Channel Five’s commitment to supporting Project Canvas following a review of our digital strategy.”
Richard Halton, Director, Project Canvas, said:
“Channel Five has already made a major contribution to Project Canvas and we’re delighted to have them back on board. This is great recognition of how important Canvas is to the future of television.”
Project Canvas will see the creation of a standards based, open internet-connected TV environment to offer viewers seamless access to both linear and video-on-demand, web-based content, HD, and interactive services over the internet direct to the TV.
Project Canvas partners further engage with device manufacturers
The Project Canvas partners today formally invited expressions of interest from consumer equipment manufacturers to develop and bring Canvas devices to market in 2011.
This process will enable the joint venture to rapidly engage new device partners and develop a broad base of manufacturers supporting Canvas – with the ambition to extend its current programme.
Project Canvas director, Richard Halton said, “Canvas is stepping up its engagement with industry as we get closer to releasing the final set of technical documents to the DTG this month, and launching a consumer product next year.
Bringing on board further consumer equipment manufacturers will ensure people have the widest possible choice of devices and we remain focused on supporting the industry to stimulate a competitive market. We continue to work closely with the DTG to develop common standards for Connected TV”.
Interested parties should express their interest by applying to the Project Canvas programme team by email at [email protected], by 5.00pm on 25 August, 2010.
Expressions of interest received by the closing date will be taken forward into a process to identify consumer device manufacturers to work with the proposed joint venture as Device Partners.
This process and the criteria to be used have been discussed with the Chairman and Executive of the Digital Television Group (DTG) and are published under ‘Device Manufacturers’ in the ‘Industry & Technology’ section of the Project Canvas web site. The number of Device Partners taken on at this stage will reflect the resources that are available within the Project Canvas programme and engineering teams.
Kip Meek to become chairman of Project Canvas
The partners in Project Canvas, the proposed joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva to build a standards based, open internet-connected TV environment, have today announced Kip Meek as Non-Executive Chairman.
The announcement follows the BBC Trust’s approval of the BBC’s involvement in the venture in late June.
As Chairman, Kip Meek will lead the Board of the new venture and oversee the appointment of a Chief Executive Officer, who will have day to day operational responsibility for the new organisation. He will step down from his full time role at Ingenious Media and his non-executive positions at the Broadband Stakeholder Group and Phorm.
Kip Meek said: “Internet technology creates unlimited choice and can also give people real control over what they watch, and when they watch it.
“Project Canvas will integrate the broadcast and on-demand worlds to make this possible via the TV. It will also allow third-party business models to thrive through an open platform, bringing the benefits of next-generation TV to anyone who wants it.
“With the backing of these six substantial partners, we have the opportunity to transform television. I look forward to working with the board and the executive team to make this happen.”
Kip Meek assumes the role with immediate effect and succeeds BBC Director of Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers who has acted as project chair for the last year.
Huggers said: “Project Canvas is of huge importance to the digital media industry, as it will secure the future of free-to-air broadcasting in the digital age. This is a major moment for a project started by the BBC and developed in partnership with the wider industry.
“Project Canvas can now continue its journey towards incorporation as a business standing on its own two feet. On behalf of the shareholders, I’m delighted to have attracted someone as respected as Kip Meek to the challenge.”
Meek has a distinguished career in British media and telecoms. Prior to joining Ingenious, he held a variety of responsibilities at Ofcom, including chairing the European Regulators Group, and was instrumental in the establishment of BT’s operationally independent infrastructure company Openreach. Before joining Ofcom, he was Managing Director of Spectrum Strategy Consultants.
Project Canvas moves forward as Five departs
Project Canvas partners today announced that Five will not pursue further involvement in Project Canvas, pending a review of its digital investment strategy.
Project Canvas, approved by the BBC Trust in June, continues with the backing of the BBC, BT, ITV, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva.
Charles Constable, Director of Strategy at Five said “We continue to support the objectives of Project Canvas and despite withdrawing our interest in the venture we believe it will be a critical part of our strategy for reaching consumers in the future.”
Richard Halton, Project Canvas, Director said: “We’ve had excellent support from Five. They share our goal of bringing the benefits of internet-connected TV to all. We look forward to working with them as a content provider to the platform in the future.”
Project Canvas will see the creation of a standards based, open internet-connected TV environment. It proposes to offer viewers seamless access to both linear and video-on-demand, web-based content, HD, and interactive services over the internet direct to the TV.
Project Canvas sets out content protection approach
Project Canvas today published information on its content protection strategy, designed to enable Canvas to support the widest possible range of content types for internet-connected TV audiences.
The requirements set out a range of content protection options to give individual content providers flexibility over the level of protection they wish to adopt and consumers the widest range of content.
As an open platform, providers can choose to make content available with no protection at all, or adopt transport encryption, file encryption, device authentication, or digital rights management (DRM). Conditional Access upgrade will also be possible for those who require it. Further detail is available in the technology section on the Project Canvas web site.
For providers of premium content, such as the latest movie releases, or those requiring a subscription or download model, Canvas will support Marlin as the required DRM solution, at launch, which has been developed over the past five years by Intertrust, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony.
The selection of Marlin follows widespread industry engagement with content owners, content distributors, device manufacturers and internet service providers, from which it was concluded that a common DRM solution present on all devices at launch and widely supported by content providers would benefit all industry participants. Marlin is referenced in Release 1 of the Open IPTV Forum specifications and therefore has the potential to be widely adopted as a part of internet-connected TV device deployments worldwide.
Anthony Rose, chief technology officer, Project Canvas said:
“Project Canvas has worked hard to account for the needs of all industry participants and ensure a rich and diverse TV viewing experience for consumers. We have also considered the submissions of key industry participants into the BBC Trust approval process.
Our content protection requirements have to cater for the widest possible number of content providers, including giving reassurance to those looking to support pay per view and subscription access to film. The industry is looking for a fully supported DRM solution, and Marlin will give content providers the best option at launch. Marlin is based on open standards, is already widely supported and is being increasingly deployed by the industry.”
The publication of the Project Canvas Content Protection requirements add to the technical specification documents already made available to industry through the Digital Television Group (DTG) with the most recent documents released on 30th June. In line with its timetable, Project Canvas plans to submit further technical documents on 30th July and 19th August.
Aside from the technical documents released via the DTG, a timetable for the publication of other materials of relevance to consumer device manufacturers, content providers and retailers (e.g. Software Development Kit, Trade Mark Licenses and Retail Training Materials) will be made available on the Project Canvas web site by end July.
Project Canvas partners welcome BBC Trust approval
Project Canvas partners welcome BBC Trust approval
The partners in Project Canvas, the proposed joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva to develop a standards based, open internet-connected TV environment, have today welcomed the BBC Trust‘s approval of the BBC’s involvement.
This news marks the conclusion of a regulatory process that began in February 2009, when the BBC Trust published the BBC’s initial proposals.
Project Director Richard Halton said: “We are delighted by today’s news. The BBC Trust has subjected the proposals to the highest level of scrutiny and the findings reflect over a year of consultation and debate. The partners will work through the final conclusions and conditions and step up our engagement with the wider industry as we plan towards a consumer launch.
“Project Canvas will safeguard the future of the UK’s free-to-air TV platforms and allow new business models to thrive through an open, internet-connected, TV platform. This brings the benefits of next-generation TV to all consumers, including those who choose not to subscribe to pay-TV. We look forward to rising to that challenge.”
Project Canvas releases further information to industry on technical specifications
Project Canvas is making the next set of technical specifications available to industry through the Digital Television Group (DTG) with a timetable for when further technical documents will also be released.
The Consumer Device Software Management Software Specification, System Metadata Model and IP Content Delivery Specification will submitted to the DTG by 31 May and released via the member zone of the DTG website on 1 June. This is the second set of technical documents to be submitted to DTG members for peer-review.
Richard Lindsay-Davies, Director-General, Digital Television Group, said: “The DTG welcomes the release of further detailed information from the Canvas partners and looks forward to working with them, and our membership, towards the publication of D-Book 7 and the launch of world-leading connected television products and services into the horizontal market.
In addition to the development of the specification, the DTG continues to work in partnership with industry to develop our existing Digital Tick, Freeview and Freesat test and conformance regimes to ensure the interoperability of connected television services and receivers.”
Richard Halton, Project Canvas Director, said: “We want Project Canvas to support a competitive market for connected TV, which is open to all manufacturers, ISPs, retailers, content and service providers. This is why we have gone to great lengths to accommodate the market’s needs in developing these technical specifications. With its diversity of members, our engagement with the DTG helps us achieve this.”
The Digital Television Group (DTG) provides a recognised industry forum for industry experts to contribute to the UK specification for digital terrestrial television – the D-Book.
DTG members now comprise over 150 organisations drawn from broadcasters, manufacturers, platform operators, retailers, trade bodies, charities and consumer groups, and therefore are the most appropriate industry group to provide their expertise to peer-review the Project Canvas technical documents.
The timetable for releasing technical documents is outlined below.
| Document | Planned Release date |
| Consumer Device Platform Specification | Released 6 May, 2010 |
| Broadcast Content Delivery Specification | Released 6 May, 2010 |
| Consumer Device Software Management Specification | 31 May, 2010 |
| Metadata Model | 31 May, 2010 |
| IP Content Delivery | 31 May, 2010 |
| Consumer Device Software Architecture | 30 June, 2010 |
| Usage Measurement Model | 30 June, 2010 |
| Content Acquisition and Management | 30 July, 2010 |
| UI Management | 30 July, 2010 |
| Consumer Device Remote Management & Diagnostics | 30 July, 2010 |
| IP Content Delivery: Content Protection | 19 August, 2010 |
| Consumer Device Requirements | 19 August, 2010 |
| Presentation Engine: Profile Specification | 19 August, 2010 |
| Consumer Device UI Model | 19 August, 2010 |