Channel Five has announced that it has decided to pull out of Project Canvas, the IPTV venture.
This will be a disappointment to the service, which is set to lose financially because of Five leaving, but it is thought that the remaining partners behind Project Canvas - BBC, Channel 4, ITV, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva - are already looking for another partner to replace Five.
Alex Lane from What Satellite & Digital TV explained to TechRadar that, in the long run this won't actually change much for Prject Canvas, noting: "This will be a bitter pill for the Canvas partners to swallow financially, but it doesn't harm the project long-term because Canvas will still have access to Five's content."
No impact
This is something which is echoed by Richard Halton, programme director at Project Canvas, who said about the news: "We are very disappointed but I don't think anyone feels the fundamental strategic rationale [for Canvas] has been diminished.
"We don't think this changes the likely scale or impact of the platform."
Five has been struggling financially of late, and is looking to be bought, so this may be one reason why Five has left.
It apparently has cost around £115 million to develop Canvas into what it is at the moment.
Charles Constable, director of strategy at Five said about the news: "We continue to support the objectives of Project Canvas and despite withdrawing our interest in the venture we believe it will be a critical part of our strategy for reaching consumers in the future."
Head of Canvas, Anthony Rose, confirmed to TechRadar last week that the service will be coming to UK sometime in early 2011.
Via FT
