Digital Britain: Project Canvas needs space for pay-TV

The BBC should be clear about the options for rival programme guides and search engines on its proposed hybrid TV/internet service.
The government’s Digital Britain report calls for more information about commercial operations inside Project Canvas.
The report, delivered today by Lord Stephen Carter, sets out the government’s priorities for ensuring public access to digital services and encouraging digital industries.

It says: “The BBC Trust is currently deliberating on Project Canvas and whether, if approved, it should be on the basis that its specifications do not foreclose commercial operators from providing monetised services via Canvas devices.
“In practice this will mean at the least clarity about the ability to incorporate conditional access and scope for rival EPG/search gateways.”
The report describes the ambition of Canvas to combine free-to-air set-top boxes with broadband on-demand TV and other services as ‘laudable’.
But it warns that the details are of crucial interest to the wider hardware and software markets already providing or hoping to provide these services.