Another competition complaint has been filed against the Project Canvas web TV consortium.
Canvas is planning to deliver television and other content to set-top boxes. Earlier this year, the BBC was given the green light by the BBC Trust to join up with the other members – Channel 4, ITV, Arqiva, BT, and Talk Talk.
This group of industry Goliaths will have the power to dominate the sector
IP Vision, which offers its own web TV platform called Fetch TV, has argued in a letter to Ofcom that Project Canvas would hurt healthy competition.
“This group of industry Goliaths, supported in part by BBC license fee funds, will have the power to dominate the sector,” said chief executive Eddie Abrams.
“The removal of competition between the Canvas joint venture partners with respect to platform, application and service development for the delivery of video content to broadband-related TV devices restricts competition in the market in general,” he added.
Richard Halton, the director of Project Canvas, said: “Our proposals remain unchanged and will create an open standards-based internet connected TV environment that will deliver the best results for consumers – giving them the greatest choice of devices, content services and applications within a competitive market.”
The new complaint from IP Vision follows one from Virgin earlier this month, with a spokesperson saying Canvas would “stifle future innovation as well as eliminate existing consumer choice for home entertainment”.
Sky has also previously argued against Project Canvas, and is rumoured to be mulling a complaint. The company couldn’t be reached for comment this morning.
The UK’s last attempt at a web TV collective, Project Kangaroo, was dismantled following competition complaints.
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