The BBC Trust has approved the BBC’s involvement in the Project Canvas internet TV platform, though it’s subject to certain conditions.

The joint venture between the BBC, Channel 4, Five, ITV, TalkTalk, Arqiva and BT is intended to develop a single standard for on-demand internet TV. Consumers should benefit from coordination of all the major content and delivery providers, but has been held up awaiting approval on the BBC’s involvement, which was seen by some as giving the Beeb too much influence on iPTV delivery following the success of its iPlayer.

Diane Coyle, a BBC Trustee and chair of the Trust’s strategic approvals committee, said: “The Trust has concluded that project Canvas will deliver significant public value for licence fee payers – people with a broadband connection will be able to access a wide range of on-demand content including BBC iPlayer, free of charge, through their TV sets. We have however applied a number of conditions to the BBC’s involvement in the venture in recognition of the potential impact on the market if Canvas is successful.”

Those conditions include obliging Project Canvas and its partners to engage with manufacturers on the technical specifications for set-top boxes, with details to be published next month.

A further stipulation is that viewers must always be able to access free-to-air content, though it’s understood that they may be charged for additional pay-TV services using the Canvas platform, such as video-on-demand services.

Lastly, the BBC’s involvement must not exceed the BBC Executive’s estimated costs of £115.6m by more than 20 per cent over five years.

The system should go live sometime next year as YouView (like YouTube and Freeview).