Trust review endorses 成人快手's continued involvement with YouView
The 成人快手 Trust has endorsed the 成人快手鈥檚 continuing participation in the internet-connected TV service YouView, subject to a number of conditions, in the findings of a review published today.
The review assessed whether YouView was complying with the terms of the Trust鈥檚 approval in 2010 of the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement.听 Trustees had committed to carrying out this review when the original approval was made.
Four areas were examined in particular:
- The availability of access and usability features, for example for the visually impaired;
- The use of on-screen 鈥榮ignposting鈥� about suitability of content, and availability of parental controls;
- The way that YouView is promoted to audiences by the seven partners involved, in particular by the 成人快手, and whether the 成人快手 was favouring YouView in any promotional activity;
- If the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement in YouView has had an effect on whether commercial public service broadcasters involved in the venture decide to make their programmes available to Youview鈥檚 competitors in the market.
Following a thorough review, the Trust has concluded that overall YouView is operating within the terms of its original approval.听 Accessibility and usability features, and editorial signposting, have been introduced, and there is no evidence that 成人快手 promotional activity is favouring YouView or that the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement in YouView was affecting the decisions of other public service broadcasters to make their programmes available to other platforms.
However, the review identified some areas for improvement and the Trust will require these to be delivered as a condition of the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement with YouView.听
A full text-to-speech function, which provides remote control functionality and helps blind/partially sighted users to browse the EPG and select and watch programmes, must be implemented in 2014/15, either integrated into set-top boxes or through external devices such as a mobile app.
In addition, YouView must commit to promptly introducing new specifications that will allow content providers to deliver content without being required to use BT or Talk Talk鈥檚 delivery network, subject to the minimum quality standard.
成人快手 Trustee Suzanna Taverne said:
"The 成人快手 has always been a pioneer in harnessing new technology to continually improve its services for licence fee payers, and its involvement with YouView is very much a part of that. We are pleased that the conditions we set are being met, that YouView is delivering for audiences on important issues like accessibility and parental controls, and that the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement is not proving harmful to the wider market.听 There鈥檚 more work to be done to ensure that YouView truly serves all audiences and we鈥檒l look to the venture to deliver on this in the coming months."聽
The 成人快手 Executive will report back to the Trust within three months on progress against the review鈥檚 findings.
When the Trust approved the 成人快手鈥檚 involvement in YouView in 2010, Trustees agreed that a review would be carried out a year after YouView launched on the consumer market, to check compliance with the conditions they had set for the 成人快手 involvement.听 The review began in summer 2013.
Notes to Editors
The terms of reference for the review .听
The Trust鈥檚 original approval of Project Canvas, as it was then known, can be found here.听
YouView is an on-demand TV service with over 70 live digital channels. It combines seven day catch-up on 成人快手 iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand 5 with a library of on demand television programmes, films and radio. For more information on YouView visit www.youview.com. It is a joint venture between the 成人快手, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BT, Talk Talk and Arqiva.
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