YouView which is a joint venture between broadcasters, set-top box manufacturers and broadband providers looks likely to not see the light of day until at least September 2012 now.
TalkTalk through its purchase of Tiscali a couple of years ago acquired Tiscali TV (aka HomeChoice launched in 2000), but for most including the existing TV customers that is but a distant memory, and represents a lost opportunity, as launching another IPTV based service in a market that has lots of free and also subscription services like NetFlix and LoveFilm Instant will prove a difficult task. Also with the digital switchover of the UK all but complete the window for spending on set-top boxes may have closed, with many people now content to avoid spending extra money to replace something only recently purchased. Dido Harding CEO of TalkTalk remains upbeat.
"Our triple play proposition that will feature YouView, is on track for launch during Q2 fy13 [Autumn 2012]. YouView will bring to our customers all of the 'plug-in-and-watch' simplicity of Freeview, plus the UK’s leading internet catch-up and video on-demand services…Development within the YouView team is progressing well and within TalkTalk we are making good progress on provisioning capability, as well as operational and CRM readiness to support our TV service within our existing operational structures."
TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding
It's late but it's not far away now. It misses a great chance to make an impact with the Euro Football and Olympics.
The underlying VoD infrastructure for YouView does work and powers iPlayer on BT Vision.
The fact that Talk Talk are actively trialing the service demonstrates YouView is close. I'd speculate that application tweaking, content prioritisation and payment mechanisms are still being tested.