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YouView Lord Alan Sugar

Lord Sugar strives to sweeten YouView

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 23, 2011 | 2 min read

Lord Sugar’s appointment to oversee the development of YouView amounts to a bid to “cure or kill” the set top box internet TV connection, according to reports.

Sugar has been brought on board to bring his no nonsense boardroom style to the putative service in a bid to break a cycle of persistent delays… but if there’s no way through the present impasse he will cancel the venture.

The Telegraph quoted an unnamed source saying: “Lord Sugar will either cure or kill off YouView. He has been brought on board by Richard Desmond to cut through all the nonsense which has been continually delaying the launch and actually get the thing to work and be on sale as soon as possible.”

YouView is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk, BT and Aviva. It was originally pencilled in for a late 2010 launch but will not now appear on shelves until 2012 at the earliest.

Analysts say YouView risks becoming irrelevant as viewers switch to watching internet catch up content directly via a TV browser, negating the need for another box.

YouView Lord Alan Sugar

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