Project Canvas, the BBC-led IPTV offering for a Web TV future, finally got BBC Trust approval in December. But it still faces an uphill struggle to succeed, especially with the number of other connected TV platforms currently emerging.

Project Canvas

Project Canvas is the innovative and ambitious endeavor that emerged from the death of Project Kangaroo. The BBC is heading the charge, with backing from the likes of ITV, Five, Channel 4, BT, and TalkTalk.

Canvas is a user interface and set of Internet TV protocols that could provide a standard for everyone in the future. There are also plans to release an Internet-connected set-top box by the end of this year.

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Television has always been an inherently social activity. While watching TV on your own is an acceptable thing to do, it’s not the same as sitting around watching the goggle box with other people. Maybe online video can help reverse the trend for solo TV viewing.

The (D)Evolution Of Television

When television was first invented and released to the public, watching programming on it was an event. Often, neighbors would visit just to watch whatever was being shown on the box in the living room.

Back then, of course, there wasn’t exactly much to watch. Now, as television has evolved, the amount of programming has increased, and with that the number of people watching each show has decreased.

Couple that with our busier lives and the occurrence of people watching television together has reduced dramatically. But it’s not from a lack of desire.

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Casual and online gaming are two sectors that have grown exponentially over the past couple of years. As a consequence, video games have gone from being niche to mainstream very quickly. And Google may be about to use YouTube to latch onto the trend.

From Geeks To The Mainstream

When I was growing up, video games and gaming were the domain of the geeky. And I was one of the nerds involved. But it’s an activity that has changed massively in recent times.

The release of the PS2 and then the Wii brought gaming into the mainstream in a big way, with new people of all ages casually dipping their toes into the water.

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As soon as Project Kangaroo was killed at birth the BBC began work on Project Canvas. This is a bigger, bolder attempt at standardizing Internet TV at this early stage of its infancy.

However, Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB isn’t happy with the proposals, and BBC red tape means it probably won’t arrive until 2011 – if at all.

Kangaroo To Canvas

Project Kangaroo was a joint project between the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, the big three broadcasters in the U.K. It would have resulted in a one-stop shop for the online catch-up services currently offered by all three separately.

Unfortunately, BSkyB and Virgin Media complained about the project and the Competition Commission consequently culled the project before it truly got off the ground. The technology was then sold to Arqiva, which plans to use it to set up its own online television service.

However, the BBC had already moved onto Project Canvas. The same companies are involved, along with British Telecom, with Canvas conceived as an open standard for online video. Set-top boxes would mean viewers had access to a whole range of Internet TV.

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Live video streaming services are rapidly growing in popularity and also rapidly growing in number. The latest to enter the fray is TinyChat.tv, which is hoping to compete against established companies such as Stickam, Ustream, Livestream, and Justin.tv.

Live Streaming Video

Live streaming video services allow anyone to stream what they want over the Internet to anyone who is interested in watching. The only real rules are regarding the content, with no copyright-infringements or criminal offenses allowed.

There are already a number of well-established companies offering ordinary people the chance to host their own online television show, with Stickam, Ustream, Livestream, and Justin.tv all popular and all user-friendly to varying degrees.

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The Xbox 360 is winning the fight for consoles to become important cogs in the online video sector. And a set of new Netflix features rolled out on the Xbox 360 have coincided with a promise that Netflix will not be coming to PS3 or Wii any time soon.

Netflix On Xbox 360

Xbox 360 owners gained access to Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ video-on-demand streaming service last November with the roll-out of the long-awaited New Xbox Experience. This gave Xbox Live subscribers access to the 12,000-plus movies and television episodes Netflix gives away to its subscribers.

This was just the latest step in the evolution of video games consoles from being meant just for games to becoming true multimedia devices designed as living room entertainment hubs.

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Live chat, online video, and social networking are three very popular sectors of the Internet. So, why not combine them all to create a platform for people to watch videos together, while chatting and getting to know each other? Which is where Watchitoo comes in.

Social Online Video Viewing

The idea of social viewing for online video has been around for a while now. Lycos lets people watch movies together, while PalTalk allows video chat to be integrated into rooms with multiple users. Then in October 2008, CBS introduced social viewing rooms to its Web site, which allows groups of people to watch CBS shows online together in the same way they would in a living room.

That’s the key to this whole idea; moving the real-life living room to the virtual world. Because online video viewing is usually a solitary pastime, with even the best clips only being shared either by embedding or linking rather than watching together with other people in real-time. But Watchitoo changes all that.

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