Formerly | Canvas Pro Tem Limited (July–September 2010)[1] |
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Company type | Limited company |
Industry | Television broadcasting |
Predecessor | Project Canvas |
Founded | 16 September 2010London, England | in
Founder | |
Headquarters | London, England |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Simon Duffy, Chairman |
Products |
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Services | |
Owner | |
Website | youview |
YouView TV Ltd is a British media company, a partnership of four broadcasters: the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5; and two telecommunications operators, BT Group and TalkTalk Group (formerly also Arqiva). It launched in 2012 the hybrid television platform named YouView,[2] which was formed from an ambitious project between the UK's four terrestrial broadcasters originally titled Project Canvas.[3]
The YouView service was developed as an open platform to combine free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) channels from Freeview using an aerial connection, with TV on demand ("catch-up TV") services using a broadband internet connection, without any subscription. YouView PVR set-top boxes have been sold at retail or built into certain Sony Bravia TV sets. The software has most notably been used by BT and TalkTalk for use on their subscription services BT TV, Plusnet TV, and TalkTalk TV.[4]
Though originally intending to compete against Freeview and Freesat, YouView as an independent retail product struggled to take off, with BT and TalkTalk becoming its main beneficiaries. This led to the broadcasters launching the similar Freeview Play platform in 2015.[5] In recent years, YouView has streamlined itself and has worked with both BT and TalkTalk to support their IPTV platforms[4] while the broadcasters have since come together as Everyone TV.[6] In December 2023, YouView said it was working with Everyone TV to help launch the new Freely service.[7]