Exclusive: Freesat to launch on-demand before Canvas

Freesat has revealed plans to launch a video on demand offering before any initiative from IPTV joint venture Project Canvas reaches the market.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Freesat trade marketing manager James Atkins explained that when the Freesat platform was launched back in May 2008, there were efforts to ensure that the products would remain "relevant for a period of years rather than just a period of months".

The platform currently supports various services, such as Red Button interactivity via MHEG-5, which Atkins said is "very, very quick" on digital satellite. However, he explained that the "real innovation" to come on the platform in future will derive from its utilisation of IPTV.

"There is nothing worse than buying a product and then being told two months later that your product is out of date," he said. "We developed our product with a pretty high level of specification in the knowledge that IPTV was going to develop and we are at that stage now where it looks like it is going to happen."

The free-to-air digital satellite TV platform is currently independent of negotiations around Project Canvas, which is being led by ITV, BBC, BT and, as recently announced, Five, to develop technical standards for the delivery of TV to broadband-enabled set top boxes.

Despite this ongoing effort, Atkins said that Freesat is committed to having an independent on-demand proposition "before Canvas launches". He indicated that because Freesat is an open platform with "no hidden agendas", this will involve working with various content partners to carry their on-demand offerings.

Atkins added that Freesat's IPTV service would most likely make catch-up programming from "channels that are already available on our service" available on demand. However, he did not rule out carrying on-demand movies and other entertainment on Freesat in the future.