Summer retail début for YouView?
June 5, 2012
By Colin Mann
Following confirmation at the end of May 2012 that UK Internet TV venture YouView would be undergoing public testing prior to commercial launch, a YouView-compliant set-top box has been included in the Summer 2012 Technology brochure from UK High Street retailer John Lewis.
Listed in the catalogue as “Coming Soon”, the Humax-produced device is priced at £299.95 (€371), promising prospective purchasers their “favourite digital TV, video-on-demand and Internet catch-up services from BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and others,” simply by plugging into their TV and broadband connection.
Alex Lane of digital technology news and review site Recombu suggests the image in the brochure looks like a Photoshopped image of the Humax HDR-Fox T2 Freeview HD DVR, with the Humax logo moved from left to right, and replaced with the YouView logo.
It is understood this is the product currently on public trial in around 350 homes of subscribers of broadband ISP TalkTalk, one of the YouView consortium partners alongside public service broadcasters the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as broadband telco BT and BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk, BT and communications infrastructure and media services company Arqiva .