Better
late than never, as they say. Two years past the promised delivery date and
just weeks before the London Olympics, YouView, a UK web video service, was
rolled out earlier this month with great fanfare.
YouView is the product of Britain's public
broadcasters and two internet service providers - BBC, ITV, Channel 4, British
Telecom (BT) and TalkTalk. It's designed to offer a combination of the
country's free-to-air Freeview channels plus interactive services and
video-on-demand. It won't deliver Freeview stations over the Internet -
customers will still need an antenna - but it will offer subscription-free
catch-up TV as well as the option to tap premium video-on-demand libraries from
the founding companies. The YouView platform will also host TV apps.
Initially
YouView will be available via a single set-top/PVR box from Humax, which will
be sold through UK retailers with the hefty price tag of 299 pounds. A
subsidized box will also be packaged in broadband subscriptions offered by
TalkTalk and BT. YouView may also receive a selection of programming and sports
from BSkyB (on a pay basis), giving YouView owners a large selection of free
and paid content to choose from.
While
critics hammered YouView for its delayed launch, the deeper question lies with
the standards employed. Outside of the UK, European consumer electronics firms
and pay TV providers have been coalescing around HbbTV as the
"hybrid" broadcast standard (mixing over-the-air and internet content
in a unified interface). While YouView incorporates elements of HbbTV in its
specifications they're not, as yet, fully interoperable. It's not clear whether
hardware and software vendors will swing their full support behind YouView or
focus on the wider opportunity afforded with HbbTV-enabled devices.
Given
the delayed launch and large price tag of the initial PVR, YouView will have to
quickly diversify its hardware portfolio if it hopes to gain traction.
