OFT to review the proposed BSkyB Canvas16: 15 22/03/2010, Mark Sweney, BBC, business, digital media, guardian.co.uk, media, business media, news, tv o

OFT to review the proposed BSkyB Canvas16: 15 22/03/2010, Mark Sweney, BBC, business, digital media, guardian.co.uk, media, business media, news, tv online , the political fabric of the project, the television industry, UK News, Guardian Unlimited

Critics of joint enterprise VoD BBC, BT, TalkTalk and ITV may have concerns with competition authorities


The Office of Fair Trading is investigating the project material, video on demand services backed by the BBC and others, giving critics as BSkyB and Virgin Media the opportunity to present their concerns to the competition authorities for the first time.


Canvas Project, the joint venture to bring digital content to viewers VoD DTT and Freesat which has supporters, including the BBC, BT, TalkTalk and ITV, has been tightly controlled by the BBC Trust, but has not been reviewed by wide regulatory body.


Critics of the fabric of the project, including Sky and Virgin Media, will be pleased to have the opportunity to air their grievances to officials, having argued that the regulator of the media, Ofcom, should have conducted an impact assessment market the proposed service.


According to a source involved with the project canvas, made a presentation to the OFT at the end of last week. The OFT is expected to launch a consultation seeking views on the project web industry this week, now seek to establish if the company reaches that threshold is known as "fusion" - also known as evidence of competition.


The consultation is expected to last several weeks. The OFT and clear the project will reach the threshold table for a formal investigation of competition, asking members of any resource to solve problems, or refer the business to the Competition Commission.


To qualify for a research project to predict the canvas of the OFT in the turnover of the UK needs 70 million pounds per year, or more than 25% of an emerging market for UK video on demand, defined by the regulator.


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