Five - why we joined Project Canvas

It's better to be in than out says broadcaster

Television broadcaster Five has discussed some of the reasons behind its decision to join Project Canvas, the industry initiative to bring IPTV to the nation's living rooms, to ensure it has a major say in the future of free-to-air TV.

Five today announced it was joining the joint venture, which already includes the BBC, BT and ITV, leaving Channel 4 as the one remaining public service broadcaster not to have signed up to the project.

It is hoped Canvas - which was announced in December 2008 - will provide UK homes with access to IPTV via broadband enabled set-top boxes in much the same way as Freeview and Freesat currently do with digital TV, by the end of 2010.

Five's head of strategy, Kieran Clifton, told silicon.com that the broadcaster felt it had missed an opportunity by not being part of the consortium behind the Freeview and Freesat digital platforms and therefore was keen to be part of Canvas.

He said: "We see ourselves as an important part of the public service broadcasting firmament and I think we felt a bit left out not being part of Freeview. We think Canvas is a great idea - we're huge supporters of anything that's going to improve free-to-air television because we are a free-to-air television provider."

Clifton explained that it was better to be involved in the running of the platform alongside rival organisations rather than being a content provider as Five is with Freeview and Freesat.

"I think we'd prefer to be inside the camp helping to make and form those decisions with other people in the industry rather than outside. Now we can make a more direct and engaged contribution," he said.

"We feel as though having our hand on the tiller along with the others will best position us to be an important player in the future of free-to-air telly. I think as we work towards a standard over the next six months it will necessarily become much more detailed and specific about exactly what it is that we're going to provide [to the project]."

Although the finer details of how Five will contribute have yet to be decided, Clifton said it will play a role in funding the project.

Clifton added that with the potential of the platform to bring web applications to the nation's television sets, Canvas will provide an opportunity for "incremental business" for Five. "It's potentially a little mini industry in itself," he said.