One of the key Joint Venture (JV) partners in YouView (Project Canvas), a UK subscription-free and broadband ISP based video-on-demand and catch-up TV ( IPTV ) service, has warned that the country's woeful internet access is, outside of faster cable areas (i.e. those covered by Virgin Media UK), "still a real choke point" for the product.


In fairness BT has been busy rolling out its 'up to' 40Mbps superfast FTTC broadband solutions ( e.g. BT-Infinity ) since January 2010 and is thus not "a few years away". However by this time next summer (2012) it will still only be able to reach 40% of the homes, rising to 66% or more by 2015.

Earlier this year Ofcom reported that the national average broadband speed was 6.2Mbps (here), which should be fine for non-HD content. Armstrong fears that the biggest problem will thus come at peak times, when networks typically become slower due to demand based congestion (broadband is a shared "Best Efforts" platform).

At the time of writing YouView is still expected to be offered through several broadband ISPs (e.g. BT , TalkTalk and probably Vodafone UK) from early next year.