Television

Sara Kimberley, mediaweek.co.uk, 04 November 2009, 2:56pm

Project Canvas to spend £50m on marketing in first four years

LONDON - Project Canvas, the proposed VoD platform from ITV, the BBC, Five and BT, plans to spend nearly £50m on marketing in its first four years as part of a planned £115m total budget.

Project Canvas: spending £50m on marketing

The service, which is still awaiting approval from the BBC Trust, aims to bring a range of VoD services to Freeview and Freesat.

Figures supplied by the BBC, in response to Trust demands for more detailed information on the project, show the BBC expects the service to run up costs of £115.6m in its first four years of operation.

Should the service continue to be backed by its four existing shareholders - ITV, the BBC, Five and BT - each will have to fork out £28.9m over this period.

However, the BBC said Project Canvas expects to recoup £17m over the four years by, for example, licensing the Canvas brand to ISPs. Should this be recouped, ITV, the BBC, Five and BT would each face a £24.7m bill.

Total marketing costs will reach £48.4m and will include brand development, production of advertising and marketing materials and media spend.

Operations will cost £17.6m over four years, while the £11.9m spent on overheads will include staff and accommodation. More than £30m will be spent on technology and £3.1m on product management.

Other submissions to the BBC Trust, disclosed today, show the BBC is open to ensuring any new shareholders joining ITV, the BBC, Five and BT would gain an equal share.

If the service did go ahead, it could reach 3.5 million homes by 2014 and rival established IPTV, cable and satellite networks, recent research by Screen Digest said.