IP Vision Targets Canvas With Ofcom Complaint

Hybrid-digital terrestrial television service provider, IP Vision, has formally lodged a complaint with Ofcom over the fact that Project Canvas may "stifle industry innovation, inhibit competition and ultimately restrict consumer choice".

Canvas is backed by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Talktalk, BT and Arqiva which is providing most of the technology and has its own competing video on demand service, SeeSaw which was launched back in February 2010.

Eddie Abrams, the CEO of IP Vision, argues that Canvas will create a "dominant platform" in the UK IPTV market that will make it difficult for others, like IP Vision's own FetchTV, to thrive.

He now calls upon Ofcom to investigate how Project Canvas can impact on "innovation, competition and consumer choice"; Abrams was particularly critical about the fact that the industry Goliaths, as he calls the companies behind Project Canvas, are supported in part by the BBC licence fee funds.

He also points out to the marketing budget of Project Canvas, which at £48 million is more than Freesat or Freeview.

Obviously, the views of IP Vision are shared by the likes fo Virgin Media and BSkyB, all of whom have their own proprietary VoD services and would love to see Project Canvas stop in its track.