Canvas to stop taking partners in April
Project Canvas has announced plans to stop taking on new partners after April 23.
The internet TV service backed by ITV, BBC, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk, said companies must show an expression of interest in the venture by April 23 if they hope to claim a stake.
Earlier this week, the Office of Fair Trading launched a review of the service, giving its critics including Sky and Virgin Media a chance to submit their concerns to the regulatory body.
It will be the first formal review of the VoD venture, following a provisional green light by the BBC Trust.
Richard Halton, the director of Project Canvas, said: “We are keen to finalise the number of interested parties in the venture to ensure we have the most effective project structure to take us through to launch, subject to final BBC Trust conclusions.
“The BBC Trust’s interim approval of the proposals in December added real momentum to the project, and the prospect of developing a subscription-free, open internet-connected TV platform has become that much more real.”
However, the proposed service has attracted criticism from rivals including BSkyB, who claims that the BBC should not be involved in the venture and that a subscription-free platform will exclude pay-TV operators.
BSkyB is set to launch its own VoD service, Sky Player, on a range of internet-connected TVs and set-top boxes after agreeing deals with LCD manufacturer Cello and 3View.
The Sky Player, which is already available on a range of platforms including the Xbox, will be offered as a pay-TV option on both Cello and 3View products.
Griff Parry, Sky’s director of on-demand, said: “The coming together of ground-breaking video services like Sky Player with innovative platforms like Cello and 3View demonstrates the vibrancy of the evolving internet video-on-demand sector. We will continue to look at opportunities to distribute Sky Player across new platforms, to give consumers even more choice and control over how they access high-quality pay TV content.”