Project Canvas: What is it all about?

When will it arrive?

The BBC Trust is dragging its feet – with the industry feedback ensuring that Canvas will not be rushed through before the repercussions are thoroughly investigated. But Huggers insisted that the decision was going to arrive "really soon".

Following that, the BBC originally put down early 2010 as its target.

Of course this depends on manufacturers, although feasibly – with the likes of Freesat boxes, and the forthcoming Freeview HD – this could potentially be as simple as a firmware upgrade to make them confirm to the standards and bring a new user interface, because they already sport Ethernet ports.

Should the industry, or even just some of the industry, decide to back the project then there will be a lag before we see Project Canvas (or whatever it eventually becomes) branded boxes, probably co-branded as Freesat ++ or Freeview ++, with Huggers confessing that he didn't see a clear future for current free-to-air platforms.