YouView under attack for stifling competition

YouView -- the UK, Internet-connected TV venture formerly known as Project Canvas -- has come under attack from entrepreneurs and early-stage investors who claim that the consortium could stifle competition.

Many people in the UK's technology start-up community see YouView as an opportunity to put their content and applications before a wider audience, because it shifts the best of the Internet from the PC to the living-room TV set. But several local television companies, a set-top box manufacturer and Virgin Media have written to Ofcom asking the media regulator to investigate YouView, which is backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva. Now Electra Entertainment, a provider of software for interactive TV equipment that competes head-on with YouView, is blaming the venture for its failure to attract investment. Electra, which provides its software to companies including Tesco for Internet-TV equipment, told Ofcom on Friday that YouView was cited by several venture-capital firms as reason not to participate in its recent funding round.