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Virgin Media moans to Ofcom over Project Canvas
MOBILE NETWORK OPERATOR Virgin Media is so miffed with Project Canvas, a six-party joint venture to bring Internet content and new video-on-demand services to UK Television, that it has whinged to Ofcom about it.
The outfit has written more than 74 pages complaining about the plan, which is due to launch in the first-half of 2011.
Branson's media empire complains that the project is anticompetitive, restricts consumer choice and jeopardises the future development of next-generation TV in the UK. Other outfits such as BskyB are also thinking about lodging a protest with Ofcom.
Project Canvas, which is an alliance between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Talk Talk and Arqiva said it will discuss the grounds of any complaint by Virgin Media with Ofcom.
An official statement said that its ideas had remained unchanged by Virgin's stiffly worded missive and it is determined to create an open standards based Internet connected TV environment "within which competition and innovation can flourish".
Project Canvas remains "focused on launching a consumer proposition next year that will transform people's daily TV viewing experience". Hopefully with more Dr Who, Torchwood, Sherlock and a remake of Babylon 5.
Ofcom has two months to think about Virgin Media's complaint and whether it will look into Project Canvas. µ
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From the Wikipedia article on Project Canvas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Canvas]:
"Project Canvas is the working title for an attempt to create an open, internet-connected television platform built on common standards, by the United Kingdom's terrestrial broadcasters [...]"
Im trying really hard to see how this, in the words of Virgin, "is anticompetitive, restricts consumer choice and jeopardises the future development of next-generation TV in the UK".
ISTM that it is in fact the exact opposite - by preventing vendor lock-in, it fosters competition and thereby improves consumer choice. And how does a stable, patent-unencumbered open standard "jeopardise" anything except price-gouging by monopoly proprietary platforms?
You know, one could almost be forgiven for thinking that Virgins comments are disingenuous in the extreme!