BBC, ITV and Channel 4 plough £100m+ into Freeview Connect

The development will be led by Ilse Howling, previously managing director of Freeview, who has been appointed managing director of connected TV at Digital UK.

She said: “The company is well placed to develop the next generation specification and work with the supply chain to support a new, mass market service to make connected TV available free, for everyone.”

There is no public launch date for the new service yet, but it is hoped that the project will avoid the technical problems and shareholder in-fighting that saw YouView limp onto the market nearly two years later than scheduled.

The troubled development contributed to the £300 retail price of a YouView set-top, which in turn meant that the service only became popular when the cost was subsidised by BT or TalkTalk and spread across the duration of a broadband contract. TalkTalk now has more than a million television subscribers, and BT added nearly 50,000 YouView households last quarter.

Jonathan Thompson, chief executive of Digital UK, said: “Digital terrestrial television is a great success story of British broadcasting and plays a vital role in the overall health of our TV sector.

“This announcement marks a critical step in the next stage of the platform’s development, ensuring that it will remain as relevant, important and valued by viewers in the future as it is today.”

For the broadcasters, however, it is a second attempt to ensure free-to-air television survives in the internet age and an admission that the tens of millions of pounds they ploughed into YouView have mostly subsidised the expansion of broadband providers into pay-TV.

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 remain equity shareholders in YouView but have with drawn most of their funding, while BT and TalkTalk have pumped more money in. With Freeview Connect the broadcasters will now bankroll a venture that will target many of the same households.

A spokesman for Digital UK said none of the technology or intellectual property developed for YouView would be re-used for Freeview Connect.

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