Yesterday (27th Oct), the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of YouView, Richard Halton, gave a presentation on the company's aims and the future of IPTV in the UK to an audience of key stakeholders, media types and a handful of invited tech and software companies.

Fortunate enough to be in attendance, the following is a brief summary of Richard's comments and our thoughts at Web Wise Business on the possible impact and future of IPTV in this country.

For those wondering what all this is about, YouView is the new service due to launch in the first half of 2011 which will bring free-to-air, on-demand and web-connected services to TV sets. Formerly known as 'Project Canvas' it has brought together BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel Five, BT, Arqiva and Talk Talk to develop a standard for internet television services in the UK.

The notion that YouView will help accelerate roll out of higher speed broadband in the UK was certainly an interesting point which arose from questions about the demands IPTV would put on existing broadband infrastructure and whether the current networks could cope.

With BT and Talk Talk having a vested interest in this area, as partners of YouView, there is certainly potential for business models to sell higher speed broadband off of the back of offering free YouView set top boxes (expected to retail around £200 on their own) since a better connection will naturally lead to more stable and speedy content delivery.

As high speed fiberoptic broadband is already beginning to be rolled out in the UK, it will be interesting to see just how much the launch of YouView will accelerate both it's roll-out across regions and uptake by consumers. YouView are targeting the 2012 London Olympics as one of it's first "showcase" events, with the intention to enable viewers to have interactive coverage of every single event - clearly a key opportunity to prove the value of the service to a wide audience.

The service will also make current hot-topic, local TV news content, more viable both financially and technically. The costs currently involved in establishing a television channel are prohibitively high for most local content to justify due to the costs associated with the broadcasting infrastructure.

However, as YouView will deliver television content through the internet, there is potential for a virtually limitless number of channels, meaning costs are significantly reduced for content providers to establish a channel of their own. This in turn means more choice for the viewer, win - win! Advertisers could also benefit from the potential for more viewers to see their content through "catch-up TV".

The point which really interests us at Web Wise Business however, is the ability to augment the television viewing experience through development of applications. Application development is one of our "bread and butter" services, we specialise in developing internet enables applications which assist businesses using platforms such as Adobe Air (which also had a TV related announcement recently). So the opportunity to develop applications  that can be delivered through the "big screen" of the house, the television, to add to the viewer experience by providing interactive elements and additional, relevant information etc, has us excited.

From conversation with Halton, it seems that applications will be delivered in a similar manner to app's from Apple's iTunes Store, allowing developers to sell applications to consumers through their television. One notable difference however, is the fact that YouView intend (for now at least, though this may change) to take no cut on the transaction.

All in all, YouView seems to be shaping up to be a win for all involved, content creators, ISP's, developers, partners and ultimately, the consumer.

The YouView set-top-box is currently being trialled in a handful of homes, with a target launch of next Autumn in the run up to Christmas 2011. Visit the YouView website to find out more information.