YouView delayed, will miss Olympics
April 30, 2012
YouView, the set-top box business headed by Alan Sugar, will not be up and running until the end of 2012.
The joint venture between BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk, BT and Arqiva had been due to launch, following a series of delays, this spring. They insisted the important thing was hitting the high street before the London Olympics.
But roll-out of the service is facing technical problems and has been delayed again until at least the fourth quarter of this year reports The Telegraph. It said that Sugar did not think the project was in a good enough shape to show to the public, beyond some small pilots. According to Companies House filings, YouView spent more than £20 million(€25m) in its first nine months to April last year. Some place sources total spend so far at more than £100 million.
A spokesman for YouView said it was being trialled in a small number of homes and that a larger trial would be rolled out “in the coming months”.