YouView spends nearly £20m in first nine months

The delayed converged digital TV joint venture YouView spent nearly £20m in its first nine months of operation, but still has no set top box products ready for launch.

The Guardian reports that YouView was handed £20.2m by its shareholders, including the BBC, ITV, BT and Channel 4, in the period from July 8, 2010 to March 31, 2011.

Documents filed at Companies House reveal that YouView burned through £19.74m in that period, despite struggling to create a viable set top box product for its already-shifted launch window of the first half of this year.

According to the documents, YouView attributed £14.5m to "cost of sales", referring to development costs of the platform, technical standards and products.

The venture spent a further £5.2m on "administrative expenses", along with £1.1m on staff, the highest paid being former chairman Kip Meek, who received £97,000 for only eight months work.

Meek was replaced by Lord Alan Sugar last March, following calls for a more high-profile chairman to drive forward the project.

YouView was officially incorporated in September 10, 2010, under the leadership of chief executive Richard Halton.

The YouView partners have agreed to each invest an equal share of the project's £115m budget, covering development, launch and the first four years of operation, including a £48.4m marketing fund.

However, the project has been dogged by criticism from the industry and beset by reported discontent among its shareholders, each with their own individual aims for the project.

In February last year, the platform's launch was delayed until "early 2012", with widespread belief that the company is aiming to hit shops before the London Olympics.

YouView faced other controversies last year, including device partner Technicolor dropping out in March, and the high-profile sacking of nearly all the PR and marketing staff working on the project.

The Apprentice winner Stella English also had an ill-fated sojourn at YouView, before being fired by Lord Sugar.

To date, TalkTalk is the only shareholder to have announced plans to officially test its YouView offering, confirming that it will run a public pilot around the end of March.