Sky provide lovin' for YouView

Following the announcement of YouView, it now appears that Sky have changed their minds somewhat of the project. It looks like NowTV, Sky's soon-to-be-launched Catchup TV service, will be among the first "non partner" content producers. Presumably, NowTV will use the same content delivery platform, initially launching with movies and later expanding to sports and entertainment.

Most of the commentary on NowTV so far seems to have been around the impact this might have in the fledgling battle for supremacy in the UK's on-demand streaming market. The current combatants Lovefilm and Netflix may well be in for a fight: Sky has an existing content base to draw upon, and the potential (as yet still only potential) for the YouView platform to reach more devices could tip the balance.

But for me, this leaves me wondering about another piece of information I recently acquired. After pressing Humax recently for an explanation for the fabled delay of their Sky Anytime (now Sky Go) service on the HDR T2 PVR, I got this response:

"We are unable to release Sky Player in its current format due to changes in Sky's platform.  Sky Player is no longer a brand and the focus will be moved on to the new Now TV service due out late this year or early next year."

It is not quite explicit here, but is it possible to infer that the HDR will get NowTV (and thus YouView platform) support instead of Sky Go? Technically this is possible, especially since Humax is producing YouView boxes from day one which, externally at least, look remarkably similar to the HDR. Whether Humax go down this route though is anyone's guess: technology companies are lamentably unwilling to give more than the bare minimum of support for "old" devices (even when they are still selling them as they are with the HDR, I might add). But Humax promised that the HDR would get Sky and Humax is still saying it is "in development", so the situation is unclear.