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Canvas slated for 2010 launch
26 Aug 2009 | 20.20 Europe/London
According to the BBC's IPTV Programme Director, Project Canvas could have an innovative way of storing content locally in order to reduce the bandwidth demands of the service. Not only that, Richard Halton says there's a "real opportunity" that the much-hyped Project Canvas will reach the market next year. Meanwhile, there's news on Hulu and Arqiva's own video-on-demand (VOD) plans.
Whether Britain's broadband can cope with the emerging IPTV-VOD future is a key factor in whether the technology can really go main-stream. Back in June, the BBC and BT had their handbags at the ready, with the former arguing BT was "throttling" its popular iPlayer service; the latter said it could no longer give the BBC a "free ride" when it came to hosting its streams. The crucial difference with Project Canvas is that both firms are stakeholders, alongside ITV and Five. In an interview with Digital Spy, Mr. Halton said "connected television is about different industries coming together - content providers, ISPs and manufacturers - and everyone comes to that business with their own costs and their own revenue opportunities".
The team behind Project Canvas - reportedly following a BBC Trust request (and as the BBC knows from its plans for local news websites, keeping the Trust happy is vital) - has been working on ways of reducing the heavy bandwidth needs associated with IPTV. This has led to the proposal of a system reminiscent of TIVO on autopilot, where popular programmes are recorded automatically and stored locally in order to reduce the demands on the country's broadband infrastructure. It's been suggested this could help offset forty per cent of Project Canvas' bandwidth needs.
"The best example is that on a Monday, 25% of our iPlayer traffic is from last night's Top Gear. So why have a million people playing Top Gear over their ISP on Monday, instead just drop it into the hard drive as soon as it has been broadcast," Halton says. "This will mean that when the consumer presses play on iPlayer in the Canvas box they won't know if it coming from IP or over the hard drive, and they won't care either. If we put it in the box, it takes all of the load from the networks and reduces the cost for them."
TIVO on autopilot or not, in Halton's eyes Project Canvas is all about "democratising the living room." And ultimately we could see the trend toward making bite-sized media, which recently led online-distribution music pioneers Radiohead to abandon making albums in favour of selling individual songs, brought to our television screens. "If Canvas is successful, then it represents a massive opportunity for content providers, particularly new players who will never get anywhere near the television because of the costs of doing something on a linear channel," he told Digital Spy. "The feedback we have had from indies, studios and content retailers of all description has been really positive. Normally its a question of 'when can we get going?' or 'what do we do next to get on the platform?' Which is great."
Elsewhere in the world of television on the Internet, Hulu has apparently offered ITV an equity stake in its UK video-on-demand venture - perhaps of up to twenty-five per cent. While that would be in line with the twenty-seven per cent NBC, News Corp. and ABC each own of its the original American version, The Guardian is reporting that other British content providers - including Channel 4 - apparently haven't been offered the same deal.
Meanwhile, Arqiva has declared its intentions to be "one of the three leaders if not the leader of [the VOD] market.” But don't worry it's not after a monopoly - it has remembered the anti-trust issues that buried Project Kangaroo, which forms the skeleton of its new video-on-demand service. "Competition is pretty good because it means going online to watch TV is becoming a more frequent reflex - it enlarges the market,” Pierre-Jean Sebert, its online TV chief executive, told paidContent. Who it is "pretty good" for, only time will tell.
Whether Britain's broadband can cope with the emerging IPTV-VOD future is a key factor in whether the technology can really go main-stream. Back in June, the BBC and BT had their handbags at the ready, with the former arguing BT was "throttling" its popular iPlayer service; the latter said it could no longer give the BBC a "free ride" when it came to hosting its streams. The crucial difference with Project Canvas is that both firms are stakeholders, alongside ITV and Five. In an interview with Digital Spy, Mr. Halton said "connected television is about different industries coming together - content providers, ISPs and manufacturers - and everyone comes to that business with their own costs and their own revenue opportunities".
The team behind Project Canvas - reportedly following a BBC Trust request (and as the BBC knows from its plans for local news websites, keeping the Trust happy is vital) - has been working on ways of reducing the heavy bandwidth needs associated with IPTV. This has led to the proposal of a system reminiscent of TIVO on autopilot, where popular programmes are recorded automatically and stored locally in order to reduce the demands on the country's broadband infrastructure. It's been suggested this could help offset forty per cent of Project Canvas' bandwidth needs.
"The best example is that on a Monday, 25% of our iPlayer traffic is from last night's Top Gear. So why have a million people playing Top Gear over their ISP on Monday, instead just drop it into the hard drive as soon as it has been broadcast," Halton says. "This will mean that when the consumer presses play on iPlayer in the Canvas box they won't know if it coming from IP or over the hard drive, and they won't care either. If we put it in the box, it takes all of the load from the networks and reduces the cost for them."
TIVO on autopilot or not, in Halton's eyes Project Canvas is all about "democratising the living room." And ultimately we could see the trend toward making bite-sized media, which recently led online-distribution music pioneers Radiohead to abandon making albums in favour of selling individual songs, brought to our television screens. "If Canvas is successful, then it represents a massive opportunity for content providers, particularly new players who will never get anywhere near the television because of the costs of doing something on a linear channel," he told Digital Spy. "The feedback we have had from indies, studios and content retailers of all description has been really positive. Normally its a question of 'when can we get going?' or 'what do we do next to get on the platform?' Which is great."
Elsewhere in the world of television on the Internet, Hulu has apparently offered ITV an equity stake in its UK video-on-demand venture - perhaps of up to twenty-five per cent. While that would be in line with the twenty-seven per cent NBC, News Corp. and ABC each own of its the original American version, The Guardian is reporting that other British content providers - including Channel 4 - apparently haven't been offered the same deal.
Meanwhile, Arqiva has declared its intentions to be "one of the three leaders if not the leader of [the VOD] market.” But don't worry it's not after a monopoly - it has remembered the anti-trust issues that buried Project Kangaroo, which forms the skeleton of its new video-on-demand service. "Competition is pretty good because it means going online to watch TV is becoming a more frequent reflex - it enlarges the market,” Pierre-Jean Sebert, its online TV chief executive, told paidContent. Who it is "pretty good" for, only time will tell.