Image by William Hook via Flickr

The war of words between Virgin Media and BBC Trust has turned ugly over Project Canvas. Neil Berkett, Chief Executive of Virgin Media has publicly slammed the BBC Trust’s consultation on Project Canvas and termed it as a ‘shameless whitewash’.

Virgin Media has always opposed the idea of BCC Trust creating a new TV platform with a single proprietary user interface. Berkett has been pitching strongly for an open technical standard which can easily fulfill the designated goals of Project Canvas – Lower barriers to entry, Make TV access democratic and simplify the environment. Virgin believes that Project Canvas will restrict consumer choice and distort the current level playing field into a monopolistic market.

BBC Trust has maintained its stand on Project Canvas and declined to comment on Berkett’s allegations. Project Canvas already has a ‘provisional approval’ and is slated to get the ‘final approval’ by end of this month. The project is backed ITV, Channel 4, BT, TalkTalk and Five.

Unless either of the two parties resorts to softening their stand, Project Canvas might end up in the ‘Office of Fair Trading’ rather than on customers TV sets.

Related articles

• Virgin Media attacks BBC Trust over Project Canvas (telegraph.co.uk)
• BBC Trust backs Project Canvas (guardian.co.uk)
• OFT likely to examine Project Canvas video-on-demand plans (guardian.co.uk)