Project Canvas Director Responds to BSkyB's Criticisms

In a posting on a BBC blog, Monday, Richard Halton, director of Project Canvas--the joint over-the-top venture between the BBC, ITV, Five and BT, that seeks to develop a common standard and interface for the delivery of online catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer and the ITV player, as well as other Internet-based VOD services, to broadband-connected set-top boxes--responded to the criticisms that were levied at the project by BSkyB in a new submission to the BBC's governing body, the BBC Trust (note: Sky's submission, which was the subject of an article in Monday's Financial Times, is available here).

Among other things, Halton's response--which he said he had composed on behalf of all the Project Canvas partners--stressed that:

• Canvas is meant to be an "open platform for the next generation of Internet-connected TV devices" and that "all content owners, Internet service providers and device manufacturers can get involved." It will "not be a BBC platform," he wrote, but a joint venture with commercial partners, "much like Freeview or Freesat." In fact, he argued, openness will be crucial to the project, because "openness delivers scale, which will be central to all the partners' ambitions to make the platform a mainstream success."
• The Project Canvas partners expect the platform to be compatible with a "standard for connected TV's [that] is being developed now with the Digital Television Group--this was always our intention and work has already begun," he wrote. It will not be a "BBC standard," he stressed.
• The partners "welcome the support of any ISP (i.e. including Sky), who could help us reach these aims, by offering the platform to their subscribers or as a venture partner, provided their ambitions for a free-to-air platform and open competition match ours."
• Although the platform itself is intended to be subscription-free, it will "support a range of monetization options--from advanced targeted advertising, micropayments or straightforward subscription. And as an open platform," Halton continued, "the rules of access would be the same for any video-on-demand service, be it Lovefilm, ITV player, the BBC iPlayer or Blinkbox." In fact, he argued, "Sky could increase the reach of its video-on-demand service Sky Player through the Canvas platform."
• Canvas is "in addition to, not instead of, the syndication ambitions of all of the existing partners. Making content widely available is fundamental to the economics of free-to-air content providers and Canvas adds to the range of options available," he wrote. "As a platform, it is intended to reduce the barriers to accessing the television set that some content providers already experience."
• Canvas contributes to a Digital Britain by ensuring that "our subscription-free TV platforms continue to evolve."