The controversial Project Canvas (YouView), which claims to be developing an open standard for delivering subscription-free broadband ISP based internet TV ( IPTV ) services, has won more support from 40 consumer device manufacturers.

Canvas, which is already under pressure after Virgin Media lodged an official competition complaint with Ofcom last month (original news), will ultimately be delivered directly into homes via special £100-£200 PVR (Personal Video Recorder) style set-top-boxes.


It's understood that Canvas will now evaluate the responses from consumer device manufacturers and select several, which will then be taken through to the next evaluation stage; most likely by the end of September 2010. Canvas has also released related technical documents on its web site, under the 'Industry and Technology' section.

Despite competition concerns, Project Canvas and its Joint Venture (JV) partners ( BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, TalkTalk, Arqiva and Five) are still pressing ahead with plans to become "incorporated this Summer". That doesn't give them long, autumn is about to begin.

Last week we reported on a new Opinium Research survey of over 1,500 adults in the UK, which found that only 35% believed Project Canvas is a good idea. Some 51% of those were waiting to see if it catches on before buying it and 19% said they were usually one of the first of their friends to buy new tech.