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Happy birthday YouView! The Internet-tastic TV box is one year old today.
A year after its birth, YouView is now in 400,000 homes, largely thanks to being given away by broadband providers BT and TalkTalk.
Since launching on 4 July 2012, YouView has updated the set-top box five times and launched apps for Apple and Android phones and tablets.
We like YouView, and have done
right from the off. It’s a set-top box that connects to the Internet, combining the shows you’ve missed with the shows that are coming up, so you can scroll back in time through the TV listings.
It ties in catch-up telly from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five; with Dave, Yesterday and Really joining soon. And you can get on-demand TV and movies from those channels as well as Sky’s Now TV.
YouView began a long, looonnng time ago as Project Canvas, way back in 2009. It quickly became a running joke in technology circles, a byword for the difficulties of collaboration between multiple companies, just another oft-delayed product that would likely never see the light of day. Even if it did, we didn’t give it great odds for survival as it was lapped by Sky+, Virgin Media TiVo, and every TV manufacturer’s own smart TV systems.
But YouView made it. The service required the temporary stewardship of TV business bellower Lord Surralan Sugar to shepherd it across the finish line and into your living rooms, but here it is. Many happy returns, YouView.
Now playing:
Watch this:
YouView hands-on
2:01
What’s your view of YouView? Do you use YouView and is it any cop? Or is another TV service superior? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or switch channels to our Facebook page.
