UK IPTV joint venture Project Canvas yesterday unveiled its official brand name, YouView, and appointed its first CEO, Richard Halton.
Halton was previously head of UK broadcaster BBC?s corporate strategy team, where he was responsible for emerging…
UK IPTV joint venture Project Canvas yesterday unveiled its official brand name, YouView, and appointed its first CEO, Richard Halton.
Halton was previously head of UK broadcaster BBC?s corporate strategy team, where he was responsible for emerging platforms and commercial strategy. He will work alongside former Broadband Stakeholder Group chairman Keep Meek, who was appointed YouView chairman in August.
YouView expects to launch in the first half of next year, but has been plagued by calls for telecoms regulator Ofcom to launch an inquiry into the service.
Open Source Consortium, the open standards software trade body, has become the latest group to call for an investigation into YouView, arguing it will have ?adverse consequences for the device and software sector, diminishing consumer choice and causing inevitable consumer harm?.
Prior to that, United for Local Television (ULTV), the industry association of local TV operators, released a statement, ULTV said it shared the concerns already raised by Six TV, which warned it would be ?catastrophic for small-scale services seeking to promote democratic participation and civil society.? Six TV argued that YouView?s main joint venture partners, such as UK telcos BT and TalkTalk, would ride rough-shod over the interests of local communities.
In its submission to the regulator, Daniel Cass, Six TV?s CEO, said: ?Some parties appear to present the Project Canvas platform as the answer to the challenges faced by new local TV services. Far from a panacea, we regard Project Canvas as a poison pill which will have a negative effect on opportunities for important new television services to enter the market.?
IPVision, the DTT/IPTV over-the-top provider, and broadband and cable operator Virgin Media have also made similar calls to Ofcom.
It is understood that Ofcom expects to decide whether to launch a competition inquiry into YouView by November this year.
