The U.K. Office of Communications rejected calls to investigate an...

Channel 4, Five, British Telecom, TalkTalk and Arqiva -- was challenged by Virgin Media and IP Vision, which said the companies involved could withhold programming from competing platforms and they haven’t made their technical standards available to those outside the venture, Ofcom said. There were also complaints that use of the Project Canvas brand, “YouView,” is tied to the specified user interface/electronic program guide, and that the venture is likely to harm competition between TV platforms, the regulator said. It declined to act, however, saying YouView is at such an early stage that investigation would be premature. IPTV is an emerging sector and YouView’s impact on the market won’t be known for some time, Ofcom said. Moreover, it’s likely the offering will benefit viewers and consumers, and whether it hurts competition in the ways alleged depends on how the market develops and how the companies act, particularly regarding access to content and issuing technical standards, it said. Nevertheless, said Ofcom CEO Ed Richards, “if evidence does emerge in the future that YouView causes harm to the interests of viewers and consumers we may reconsider whether to investigate.” YouView is expected to launch in the first half of 2011, Ofcom said. A Virgin Media spokesperson said the company is “perplexed and disappointed” by the decision but won’t comment further until it has examined the statement and reasoning in more detail. The Telegraph newspaper reported last month that YouView may run afoul of YouTube’s trademarks. YouView CEO Richard Halton was quoted as saying the branding of the set-top box echoed the name “Freeview” to alert consumers that the new service is the next generation of free-to-air television. YouView also reportedly said it’s unaware of any opposition from YouTube owner Google to the name.