On 14-Oct-2009, at 11:28, Stephen Jolly wrote:
On 14 Oct 2009, at 09:54, Mo McRoberts wrote:
This is actually what I’d assumed the case would be, so I was a
little surprised by the blog post yesterday (which conveniently
skirts around the point that neither Sky nor Virgin Media, for
example, would be able to officially make their STBs work with
Canvas-delivered services without ditching their own user
interfaces and using the Canvas UX).
"Large parts of the Canvas technical specification will be available
for use by manufacturers whether or not they deploy the Canvas UX
(potentially as part of the DTG DBook 7). This gives the
manufacturer the choice to deploy the Canvas UX or not, while still
benefiting from a standard based approach. Such devices would be
‘own branded’ and in these cases the manufacturer would liaise
directly with content providers regarding the terms of prominence
and delivery of their services to the device and any other
commercial terms (in a similar manner to other TV platforms)."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/consult/canvas_additional/section2.pdf
Thus creating an (effective) two-tier system: those who work go the
whole hog within Canvas, or those who adhere to all of the _technical_
specifications but need to come to separate arrangements in order to
deliver them, and can’t (of course), brand their devices as being
Canvas-compliant.
The biggest losers here are the consumers, really.
Contrast an all-or-nothing approach with one which mandates key
functional and UI requirements (for example, it might mandate that
users be able to subscribe to services by URL, or simply a domain name—
thus anybody adding “bbc.co.uk” can add all of the BBC’s services to
their EPG and on-demand list).
With the latter, it doesn’t matter whether you use the JV’s UI or
Sky’s or Tiscali’s or Virgin Media’s, you know that if it has the
Canvas logo on the front and the service you want to subscribe to is
Canvas-compliant, you can go to a menu and add it if it’s not already
there. This is analogous to how Freeview and Freesat work today
Instead, although a service itself might adhere to the technical
specs, you not only have to join the JV, but also negotiate with the
non-JV entities who happen to also adhere to the technical specs, even
though the only part of the service being “carried” by anybody is IP
transit, and it’s not even like there are tricky EPG issues to work
out, because the consumer is in control of that.
[Admittedly, Sky wouldn’t like that proposition much _either_, but for
different reasons to its current objections!]
M.
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