BT Vision is certainly a step towards complete on demand television programming. BT Vision channels allow viewers to either watch an assortment of basic programming via Freeview or expand that programming to one at a time on demand selections. Allowing customers to specifically choose only those programs they wish to see almost seems in contrast to the entire for profit motivation of cable TV providers but then BT is also taking a very public stance by means of their partnership with the BBC and ITV in Project Canvas.
For those unaware, Project Canvas is a collaborative effort of five major United Kingdom television forces whereby programming is placed on the Internet and accessed by special set top boxes for display directly on your television. While data streaming onto computers has been available for several years, using broadband to access complete programming selection in this manner is a fairly new development. So much so that both Virgin media and Sky have been extremely vocal in their sentiments that Project Canvas would run counter to free market competition. Obviously the project would, at some point, destroy the marketing viability of current TV packages.
The greater reality is that communication is education and that Project Canvas will allow public service broadcasts to exist on an equally accessible footing as mainstream commercial television entertainment too. For more information on Project Canvas and how it may affect television pricing plans, you may wish to visit free consumer advice for television website digitalchoices.co.uk.