Project Canvas, the BBC’s proposed connected-TV EPG standard, is facing a couple of challenges next year…
Not only has the project been delayed from 2009 to late 2010 by the regulator’s request for a more detailed proposal (meaning it won’t get to piggyback the launch marketing of Freeview HD) – many of the very same TV makers that the BBC is trying to convince to use Canvas are busy actually selling tellies with their own built-in internet services…
More than 20 percent of flat-screen TVs shipped in Europe next will have internet connectivity, Futuresource estimates in a new report – that’s 15 million sets, nearly a tenth of the installed flat-screen base.
In other words, if Canvas is green-lighted by the BBC Trust in the next few weeks, by the time it launches, it will be competing with existing internet TV devices that already offer video-on-demand and other selected web services.