BT is confident that its stake in YouView will be a successful one, despite the long delays to the service.
Speaking at the Future of Entertainment Summit, Alexander Green, TV commercial and product director, at BT, reckons that once consumers see the potential in YouView (or, as it isn't actually out yet, actually just see it) they will be won over by its IPTV charms.
"We do think that YouView will shake up the market and give viewers that have resisted pay TV an opportunity to try out on-demand television without a high, expensive subscription model," Green explained.
Demand for on demand
Green is no stranger to an on-demand world given that he was poached from Virgin at the end of last year, so he will be relieved when YouView is finally out for consumers to try.
Currently there are a number of boxes being tested in the wild and YouView's chairman Lord Alan Sugar has decided to use his Twitter account as a mouthpiece for the service, asking people to sign up to confidential trials.
So far YouView has been marred by numerous delays, though, and a number of big-name broadcasters have criticised the service.
One of these is Sky, which did hint that even though it's not a fan it could well end up on YouView, in its Now TV guise.
Also speaking at FES 2012, COO Mike Darcey said: "I hope there will be an opportunity there but we need to check if YouView want us.
"It is very hard to back all the horses at the moment and we did wonder if it was right to spend public money on this service when the market is already doing [a similar thing]."
Darcey also revealed that he thinks despite the delays YouView will be a big venture, explaining: "There is a numbers game and YouView will be marketed by a number of big players."
