Sky Chief Slaps Down Project Canvas Again
Whilst the Sky Player is expanding across multi-platforms, Sky are still criticising the BBC led Project Canvas. Chief operating officer of Sky, Mike Darcey has said in an interview with the Guardian that Project Canvas will “distort fair competition” in the nascent market for online video services.
Whilst Darcey agree’s that the internet TV market is expanding, he says it is still sitting at an “embryonic stage of development”. Meanwhile the Sky player has been expanding its online content, after launching on Xbox Live last year. It is set to be included in IP Vision’s FetchTV Freeview platform. Most Freeview/Freesat set-top boxes are now internet enabled and Darcey expects the “pace of change and innovation” in internet streaming to expand as the consumer demand grows.
Are Sky anti Canvas? You bet
However, Darcey claimed that in such a developing market he struggles to “understand why we need a new, publicly subsidised platform in the shape of the BBC and BT-backed Project Canvas”. He said that Sky’s principle concern about the project, which is awaiting final approval from the BBC Trust, is in regards to the use of public money “in a way that distorts fair competition or undermines the scope for other innovative services to emerge in the future”.
He continued:- “Anyone looking at the Canvas proposals has to consider the consequences – whether intended or unintended – of diverting part of the licence fee away from programme-making and into proprietary platform development instead. Taking in turn the three main elements of the Canvas project – adopting common technical standards, specifying a consistent user interface and bringing internet-connected TV to more consumers – there appears to be no need for the licence fee to be redirected in this way.”
Darcey also questioned the need for Canvas in light of the fact that the Digital TV Group is already working on a common technical standard for broadband video delivery. He said that service providers and consumers would be “better served” if a single online video standard was developed by the DTG covering issues such as compatibility and digital rights management.
The Canvas partners intend to develop a unified user interface for all compliant Canvas devices, which Darcey described as:- “anti-choice and anti-innovation”. He added: “The reality is that consumers benefit when companies seek to differentiate their products, because that’s what drives improvement. Let’s not forget the benefits of this horizontal approach, with multiple competing user interfaces having helped Freeview reach many of millions of households in recent years.”
He said that the online tv market is “already happening and will continue to spread”, but Canvas could hamper commercial players from launching new products to compete with the mighty BBC. “The BBC’s failure to operate a transparent and fair content syndication policy, and the Trust’s ineffectiveness in this regard, leads inevitably to the conclusion that the corporation puts its own interests ahead of those licence fee payers who might prefer to access BBC content on a platform other than Canvas,” he said
Sky have also pointed to other players in the market such as Virgin Media who have also criticised Canvas. Other players like Samsung and IP Vision share its concerns about the BBC’s involvement in Canvas. He would rather see the BBC supporting innovation by investing in original content instead of “spending the licence fee on an unnecessary and market-distorting platform”.
Darcey also condemned the fact that BT could unfairly benefit from Canvas as it plans to relaunch its BT Vision digital TV service using the IPTV service. “The effects of that distortion could spread far beyond the original purpose of the licence fee. BT, one of the UK’s biggest companies, could well become one of the great beneficiaries of the BBC’s investment in Canvas. When the BBC Trust comes to consider its decision, it must recognise that helping BT to relaunch its TV service is not the right way to use the licence fee.”
Online tv services are set to explode this year with the launch of new or enhamced online video services such as SeeSaw, MSN Video Player and BlinkBox. More importantly, viewers will be able to watch these online tv services on their television sets as top TV manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic plan to launch new internet connected TV sets into the market.
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[...] Whilst Darcey agree’s that the internet TV market is expanding, he says it is still sitting at an “embryonic stage of development”. Meanwhile the Sky player has been expanding its online content, after launching on Xbox Live last year. It is set to be included in IP Vision’s FetchTV Freeview platform. Most Freeview/Freesat set-top boxes are now internet enabled and Darcey expects the “pace of change and innovation” in internet streaming to expand as the consumer demand grows. View the Original article [...]
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