Erik Huggers, BBC: Single idea to take online video home

The key to getting online video into the living room is industry acceptance of an open-standard set-top box, Erik Huggers, director of future media and technology at the BBC, said during his Big Interview at the Broadband Video Summit yesterday.

“The notion of the internet reaching PCs, Macs, Linux devices and increasingly mobile devices is fantastic news for all rights owners,” he said. “The same thing is happening in the living room. The question is: Can there be an open IPTV standard that device makers adopt to enable a direct-to-consumer delivery of on-demand content in the living room?”

The concept is under development at the BBC under the codename Project Canvas but Huggers stressed that while developments could emerge as early as a year from now, it had yet to get approval from the BBC Trust.

It would also, he said, need the backing of hardware manufacturers and all broadcasters to ensure there was just one player for all online content.
He revealed that the BBC was working on a children’s iPlayer, which could be offering junior content on demand by the end of next year.

He also touched on his hopes for “widgetisation” – creating screen symbols which on a TV, mobile phone or other device could at one touch connect users to online video.

This and more in the MIPCOM daily News, online soon; and watch this space for Huggers’ address in video!