Project Canvas – what will be on the new platform and on what terms?
Published on 29 Jul 2009 at 2:24 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Project Canvas.
Blog Author: Tony Ballard
What is Project Canvas exactly? And on what terms do content providers have access to it? Prompted by complaints from some parts of the industry, the BBC Trust has now (23 July 2009) published some additional information.
One key point is that Project Canvas is very much a broadcaster’s response to the internet rather than vice versa. It will not have full internet browser functionality, as will apparently be made clear when members of the public buy a Canvas box. Instead, purchasers will be able to use it to access a number of services, very much like a Freeview box, except that in addition to the main Freeview channels they will also be able to access on-demand services such as the BBC iPlayer, the ITV Player, BT Vision and web applications such as flickr, facebook and YouTube (at least if they decide to come onto the platform). But there will be no general access to the web. A service provider’s content will be available on the platform if the service provider has subscribed to the platform’s electronic programme guide or EPG, but not otherwise. The point is that, like Freeview, it is a platform for service providers. It will be open to all of them, subject to certain detailed criteria which remain to be specified but which will relate to technical integration, the integrity of the platform (no bugs) and/or (sic) application of the laws of the land.
EPGs are gateways, as the BBC itself has remarked elsewhere (in relation to Sky’s EPG). They offer opportunities for anti-competitive behaviour and can be a “competitive bottleneck”, as Ofcom has put it. Control of an EPG by a vertically integrated operator hands to the operator a degree of influence over the likely success or failure of competing services. An EPG for television programme services is therefore regulated - both as a licensable content service and as an associated facility under Part 2 of the Communications Act. The provider of an EPG must not engage in any practice prejudicial to fair and effective competition and access must be provided on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRND) terms. But the law has not yet caught up with on-demand and other services – the EPG regime applies only to conventional broadcast services. It does not apply to on-demand programming or other web applications (nor will implementation of the AVMS Directive change things).
The BBC Trust tells us that all respondents to the initial Canvas consultation highlighted the importance of fair and reasonable access on the Canvas guide. The original proposal had not analysed this element because it was supposed that a common guide would be subject to Ofcom’s code, which requires fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory treatment of channels wishing to be placed on the guide. But of course that is true only of conventional television channels.
The FRND regime is not, in fact, a panacea anyway. It has not proved particularly effective in the past and, although better than nothing, this consultation might be an opportunity to consider a more muscular regime. There are indications in the additional information that has now been published that the BBC intends to apply the FRND regime across the board but they are (perhaps inadvertently) equivocal – a number of “business rules” are proposed but they do not address the fact that the existing regime applies only to conventional channels and it is expressly stated that the business rules will be intended primarily to comply with any “legal” obligations on Canvas, which would not include any obligation to apply the regime to on-demand and other services. There is no clear commitment to apply the FRND regime to those other services. This matters because it affects fundamentals such as access to the platform in the first place, prominence of positioning and what Canvas charges for the privilege of being included in the EPG.
It is quite clear that the EPG regime applies only to the conventional channels. If the touchstone for the Canvas is compliance with current law, it is not enough. The safeguards of current law do not extend into the on-demand and web application area and the Trust must fill the gap.