Digital TV Group Slams Project Canvas Over Competition Concerns

Digital TV Group (DTG), an industywide business entity that include the likes of Dixons, Samsung, Sony and Pace and , has approached the BBC Trust to express its "widespread concern" over Project Canvas.

The video on demand project that is currently headed by the BBC, includes all the major broadcasters (ITV, Channel4, Channel Five) as well as BT (and possibly Talktalk and Virgin Media), has been provisionally given the green light in December.

But members of the DTV says that they fear that participants of Project Canvas are developing a proprietary separate standard that could potentially lock them out.

According to the Guardian, the body told the BBC Trust that "There remains widespread concern in the industry that there is a parallel process in place with a Canvas specification being developed by the joint venture and its innovation partners separately from, and regardless of, the DTG's Connected TV specification work".

Surprisingly enough, most members of Project Canvas are themselves members of the DTG and said in a statement that "We have been encouraged by the wide range of consumer electronics companies who have expressed an interest in manufacturing Canvas-compliant devices.  These companies are also members of the DTG and we hope to make an announcement in this regard in due course."

In a separate piece of information, the CEO of Freesat told IPTV-News that that they will be launching a Freesat Set top box that's compatible with Canvas.