The IPTV joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, Arqiva, BT and TalkTalk - which last week got the green light from the BBC Trust - has attracted other parties, Halton told new media age.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from companies right across the spectrum, like ISPs, electronics manufacturers, and content providers,” he said.

The BBC Trust gave the go-ahead to the project last week on the proviso the BBC comply with certain conditions (nma.co.uk 25 June 2010). For example, users must always be able to access Canvas for free, although they may be charged for additional services from third parties, such as video-on-demand and broadband subscription.

The project, rumoured to be called YouView, is understood to cost a total of £115.6m over five years, to be divided between the seven current partners. The BBC’s involvement is set at £24.7m, and the Trust has stipulated it must not exceed these estimated costs by more than 20% over the five years.

Halton confirmed the project will launch in the first half of 2011 and marketing will be ramped up in the preceding few months.

“From an industry perspective, Canvas has a lot of traction, but in the public world it’s near invisible,” he said. “But we don’t want to be too quick to market with a product that isn’t in the field yet, so we’ll wait until a few months before the official consumer launch date before we ramp up the marketing around it.”

The Trust will review the BBC’s involvement against the conditions of its approval 12 months after the launch of Canvas.