The Financial Times (FT) newspaper, which these days sits behind a subscriber-only wall, has spoken to BT Retail's UK Chief Executive, Gavin Patterson, and discovered some juicy hints about what customers can expect from future updates to its slow-growing BT Vision broadband IPTV platform. New HD content is also anticipated.

Patterson reveals that BT will soon move towards leveraging its new generation of fibre optic based FTTC and FTTP broadband services to improve BT Vision's content and interactivity. "We believe our vision for TV comes alive with fibre. To create a next-generation TV platform, we need both [content and technology]," he added.

BT Vision will also take advantage of the highly controversial Project Canvas platform, which claims to be an "open standard" for delivering subscription-free broadband TV services directly into homes via your ISP and special set-top-boxes.

Project Canvas is part of a Joint Venture (JV) between broadcasters and ISPs, most prominently including the BBC , ITV , BT , TalkTalk , Channel 4 and Arqiva. However it recently suffered a setback after Virgin Media lodged a formal competition complaint with Ofcom (here). Regardless, the final service is still expected to launch next year, possibly under the new title/brand of YouView.

However this is not standing in the communication providers way. Existing BT Vision customers can expected an upgrade to support the new technology, while new boxes will continue to be sold as part of BT's existing bundles. The success or failure of more than a few ISPs and their IPTV ambitions, not just BT, could end up resting with Project Canvas.