Digital TV Europe July/August 2010
Technology > Interactive TV
Interactive TV focus
Five leaves Canvas, but may return Canvas: the jont-venture
It’s been an eventful few weeks for Project Canvas, the proposed joint venture to build an open internet- connected TV environment to com- plement the Freeview digital-terres- trial service, with one member leaving, another rumoured to be joining and a chairman being appointed. Shortly before its sale to media
entrepreneur Richard Desmond, owner of the Expressnewspapers and OK!magazine, UK terrestrial channel Five withdrew from the Canvas consortium pending a review of then-owner RTL’s digital investment strategy, leaving the remaining consortium members – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva – to fill the funding gap left by its withdrawal. Five’s contribution was reported to be about £16m (€19m) over four years,
internet-to-the-TV service will launch next year.
out of a total budget of £115.6m as recently revealed by the BBC. Charles Constable, director of
strategy at Five said “We continue to support the objectives of Project Canvas and despite withdrawing our interest in the venture we believe it will be a critical part of our strategy for reaching con- sumers in the future.” Immediately after Five’s announcement, mobile operator and internet service provider Orange UK was reported to be in talks to take its place in the consor- tium. Orange has previously con- sidered launching an IPTV service in the UK and last year was identi-
fied by the press as a possible bid- der for Kangaroo, the BBC-led online TV project that was aban- doned by the corporation at the behest of regulator Ofcom and ulti- mately sold to Arqiva, now also a Canvas partner. More recently, however, it has emerged that Five may return to the consortium, with Desmond reportedly indicating before his acquisition that he could pay its contribution. Separately, Kip Meek has been named as the chairman of Project Canvas (see News Digest p.4).
BBC News and France 24 launch new iPhone apps
UK public broadcaster the BBC has launched a new app for iPhones and iPads. The free-to-download app was
due to launch in April but was delayed while governing body the BBC Trust addressed the proposals and their impact on the rest of the industry. It ruled that the apps do not “represent a significant change to the BBC's existing public services”. The BBC said apps for other devices including Android phones will launch later in the year. Similar apps for BBC Sport and iPlayer will also launch soon, the broad- caster said.
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BBC Worldwide’s advertising- funded global iPad news app has been downloaded one million times since it launched, Meanwhile, French news
broadcaster France 24 has launched a new iPhone app that offers location-specific news services. The free app is available in English, French and Arabic, and is compatible with the iPad. It gives full access to all
France 24 programmes live or on-demand, allowing viewers to replay all broadcasts over the previous two months. In addi- tion, a mapping tool allows users to find news according to their
location thanks to France 24’s automatic and geographical ref- erencing of news articles and videos. Articles and videos are sorted
into geographical zones, includ- ing France, Africa, the Middle- East, Europe, the Americas and Asia as well as by category including sports, culture, health, economy and technology, ecolo- gy, news reports and weather. The app also enables users to
interact with editors by sending in their own photos and videos. The French broadcaster’s first iPhone app has been downloaded over one million times.
In Brief
Panasonic movie service Panasonic is launching a VOD service for its connected TVs in some European markets. The company is adding online film service AceTrax to VieraCast, the interface on its connected TVs and Blu-ray players. AceTrax has approxi- mately 20,000 titles from con- tent owners including Warner Brothers, Universal and Paramount. The service will be available in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the UK with titles in the UK likely to cost £1.49-£3.49 (€1.78-€4.17) to rent and £4.99-£11.99 to own.
YouTube leans back YouTube has launched its new Leanback service in beta. The service allows users to access videos using the keys available on a TV remote control rather than a full computer keyboard. Users can also view person- alised video feeds in full- screen mode, and YouTube is also providing a pay option and the ability to connect the site with Facebook accounts.
Betfair launches TV app Bookmaker and broadcaster Betfair TV is to bring a live betting application to the FetchTV hybrid platform for the UK. When launched in August, the Betfair TV app will enable customers to bet on sporting events as they watch them live on TV.
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