The Office of Fair Trading has today confirmed that a formal investigation into All systems go for Project Canvas has now been cancelled. It appears that the Office of Fair Trading does not have the jurisdiction to investigate the subscription free broadband TV service proposed by the partners of Project Canvas. So who is behind the project?
The prominent partners in the project are the BBC, ITV, BT, TalkTalk, Channel 4, Argiva and Channel 5 in a move which has been criticised by Sky and Virgin Media. However, despite the fact that the project would bring subscription free TV not only to the Internet but also TV sets, via set top boxes, it is the fact none of the partners will be providing video on demand content which has paved the way for the project to get underway.
There is no doubt that IPTV and the amalgamation of internet and TV services will continue into the future with the makeup of this sector likely to change on a regular basis. We are already starting to see the battle lines drawn up by various parties although what we see at the moment is likely to be very different to the eventual makeup of the IPTV sector of the future.