Technicolor Pulls Out of Youview Deal

written by: Richard Kastelein

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Published on Friday, 13 May 2011 07:33

Technicolour, one of the main suppliers set to provide Youview with the most affordable Set Top Box (STB) solution, have pulled out of the deal, according to industry insiders. Cisco and Humax are still slated to develop boxes but at a much higher price point. Huawei, Pace, Manhattan and Vestel have all submitted ‘expressions of interest’ back in August 2010 but have not committed which leaves the project with a shortage of suppliers.

YouView, now being headed by Alan Sugar, is a joint IPTV venture between some of the UK’s biggest names in TV and broadband, including the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Talk Talk Group, Arqiva, and Five. But the open project has been set back to a 2012 launch and been harshly critisised by the likes of Sky and Virgin.

According to the specifications (229 pages) released only a few weeks ago, all YouView boxes will ship with at least 320GB of hard drive storage, and offer a minimum of two USB connections alongside the Ethernet port. However, while Wi-Fi must be supported, this can be via an optional dongle.