When I started here at PVR Wire over a year ago, one of the first things I wrote about was BT's forthcoming iPTV/PVR product, codenamed 'Nevis', now named 'Vision'.That was back in 23 August 2005.
BT promised customers that the product would be available for the Christmas 2005 market, then in October, the product was officially announced, touted for a Q4 2006 release.
In the meantime, BSkyB purhased UK ISP EasyNet and started offering movie downloads via broadband, and all BT could do was announce partnerships with media providers like the BBC, Paramount and Warner.
Well, BT has finally started rolling the product out in a 'soft-launch' approach, perhaps to try and meet the promise of the product being available "by the end of the year", but it's more likely in response to media boredom at being sold the same pony over and over again by BT's over-zealous marketing men.
The combined Freeview/PVR/broadband/IPTV box is now being touted for a Spring 2007 public release, but I wouldn't hold my breath, for the simple reason that nothing has really changed since I reported this product over a year ago.
And, given the growth of stand-alone Freeview PVRs, BSkyB's Sky+ service -- combined with all the other PVRs and providers on the market -- BT are on to a losing start in any attempt to convince users to cough up roughly £100 for a box which requires a subscription to watch most of the content on offer anyway.
