From 2011: YouView internet replay services on TV screens

From 2011, YouView set-top boxes will be available to buy.

In a collaboration between the UK’s pub;ic service broadcasters, these will allow the previous week’s worth of television programmes from subscription-free channels BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to be drawn down from each of their Internet on-demand replay services and viewed on the television screen.

YouView will also carry a range of on-demand services and interactive facilities.

This development has come about from Project Canvas, a joint development by the channels named above with BT, TalkTalk and Anglia.

Set to launch early in 2011, YouView’s programme guide will work by displaying backwards as well as forwards, enabling viewing selection, advance recording and replay over the immediate past seven days.

In a move that will put YouView in direct competition with the hugely successful Sky+ service, we understand that YouView will also offer the abilities:

• to record whole series in one action
• to pause live programmes
• to search for programmes by genre, interest or locality
• to access an applications store, carrying a variety of services and interactivity.