BT HAS warned British Sky Broadcasting to back off from blocking its plans with consortium partners the BBC and ITV to roll out free "next generation" digital television across the UK.
The BBC Trust is expected to confirm early next month that it is backing "Project Canvas", a venture aimed at delivering a comprehensive broadband TV Freeview service starting next year.
Project Canvas, dubbed the "son of Freeview", combines TV, r
adio and high-definition services from a set-top box, with BT acting as the primary internet service provider.
Planned services include free on-demand catch-up and archive programming provided by technology like the until now internet-driven BBC iPlayer and ITV Player along with films, web content and interactive TV.
The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, has described the venture as "potentially the Holy Grail of future public service broadcasting provision in the UK".
But BSkyB has called for an Office of Fair Trading investigation and said it will vigorously contest any moves to establish a digital terrestrial free TV venture that cuts across its satellite service.
Dan Marks, chief executive of BT Vision and deputy chief of BT retail, who is in charge of the telco end of Canvas, was in meetings in Glasgow last week, including one with Robert Woodward, chief executive of STV, to discuss media opportunities.
"We intend to make the most strenuous remonstrations with the regulator about any attempts by Sky to block what represents an open and competitive delivery of an exciting and important new era of rich digital free TV for all of Britain's consumers," he said.
Marks, a former Hollywood-based Academy Award and Sundance Film Festival winning documentary filmmaker, was headhunted by BT in December 2006 specifically to set up BT Vision and advance that side of the telco business.
Marks pointed out that while Sky "is a very big company" it has, to date, attracted significantly less than half of the UK's 24 million TV households, with the bulk of those remaining opting for Freeview.
"Canvas is primed to step up a gear on what is available by offering all those customers who already have a free subscription a better television service. It is clearly and overwhelmingly a great proposition for all concerned, from content and internet service providers onto the consumer."
Marks said he was "very confident" that the BBC Trust will approve the plan.
