From Youtube to YouView - the future of TV

If Wikipedia is correct (and it almost always is) then Project Canvas as it is now known will soon be rebranded as YouView - and the future of TV will be (in a branding sense) born. But what is Canvas and why is it so important to both the UK TV viewer and also the wider world of television?

Project Canvas is the Joint Venture between a number of partners including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva. The aim is to develop the next generation of television whereby you link your TV to the internet in order to combine the power of the web with the quality of broadcast TV. At its most simple level, it is iPlayer on your TV (but across many channels). Imagine reaching the end of Coronation Street or Eastenders and then hitting the red button to select the episode you missed last week.

More interestingly, Canvas aims to combine TV with a host of other services such as shopping, info gathering, social networking, etc. to provide a more holistic entertainment experience - for example, clicking on the red button during a cookery programme in order to get the ingredients added to your next Ocado delivery. At its most extreme, you could find yourself clicking on Keanu’s coat as he runs down the corridor in The Matrix in order to do an in-video one-click purchase, with the coat delivered to your home, in your size, via next day delivery. A bit far-fetched within the next year or 2, but not necessarily impossible thereafter.

This is where things get really interesting. We don’t know what Canvas can do because many of the business models have not yet been developed. There is a feeling within the industry that this is the beginning of something very big – with the TV space being at the start of a journey similar to the where the internet was in 1994-5. Those that can create the TV-Internet (known as Connected TV) equivalent of new businesses such as eBay or Amazon stand to make a fortune. As a result retailers, media companies, telcos, Venture Capital firms and just about anyone else in the space is watching with a lot of excitement. For example, Television Commerce, (or t-Commerce as it will be known) could become a major area of opportunity if businesses can learn to provide a user experience that avoids having to use existing remote controls.

Canvas is not the only option in this space. Apple, Google and a whole host of other businesses are developing rival products, many of which are already on the market. The key difference in the UK is that the success of services such as Freeview, combined with the power of the JV partners means that Canvas, when launched, could become a mass market solution based on industry agreed standards. As a result, many other parts of the world are watching with interest to see whether Canvas could become a template that would be rolled out on a global basis.

So how do you become the next t-millionaire? With the JV launch expected at some point next year, the website suggests that a software developer kit (SDK) will be available for budding entrepreneurs at the end of 2010. The aim is to allow third parties to develop applications that will loaded into an Apple App-Store style solution that Canvas users can browse. Therefore, thinking of a great idea and being the first to market could result in big things. A bit far-fetched? Possibly, but not impossible.