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Lord Sugar to announce YouView next week

Press invites for a YouView product announcement, due to take place next Wednesday the 4th of July, have just been sent out. The non-subscription TV platform, hailed as the next generation of Freeview, has been the subject of numerous delays and rumours regarding its launch date.

YouView was originally thought to be in the shops before the London 2012 Olympic Games. This was thrown into doubt when it emerged that Lord Sugar, a YouView board member, allegedly said the service wouldn’t be ready until later in 2012.

YouView announcement with Lord Sugar and CEO Richard Halton due next week

It looks like the Apprentice star is due to set things straight next week; he’s jointly hosting a YouView product announcement with CEO Richard Halton at a London event.

YouView is a joint effort involving Arqiva, BBC, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV and TalkTalk. The service will allow you to scroll back in the programme guide to catch up with programmes as well as provide access to a host of services like BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD and Demand Five.

As well as this, it’s expected that access to on-demand services such as Spotify, Netflix, LoveFilm and Blinkbox will be included with YouView boxes.

Humax has signed up to make YouView boxes and BT and TalkTalk have said they’ll launch their own YouView devices.

Whether YouView launches in time to make the Olympics finish line – the Games kick off on the 27th of July, or a month today – remains to be seen. But this time next week we ought to have a better grasp on exactly how the YouView service will shape up, regardless of what time YouView hardware hits the high street.

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