YouView presents businesses with a real opportunity First a word about what YouView, formerly known as Project Canvas, will give to TV audiences. The box will offer a programme guide that can work historically, offering seven day catch up television via web TV services such as ITV Player. It also operates "forwards" in a similar way to BSkyB. YouView aims to build on Freeview's success and offer a subscription-free TV service offering more choice via extra content made available via the web. It will also offer a TV app store and a full search experience. The first boxes will go on sale by the end of the month at £299. Cheaper versions of the box, subsidised by TalkTalk and BT and offered as part of a broadband bundle, will follow later this year and are expected to effectively offer the box for free in exchange for a monthly subscription. Lord Sugar said at the unveiling: "It's with great pleasure that we announce that YouView will be available from major retailers later this month. Richard Halton, YouView's chief executive added: "In many ways we've only just begun, YouView is set to evolve quickly and we look forward to working with new content partners and developing more functionality as boxes roll out into UK homes." Already those who have seen it have been critical about how little extra it brings to the already overcrowded internet-connected TV market. Analysts have said they are underwhelmed by the offering - beyond the backwards travelling programme guide. Today, YouView is launching to a very different market, in which all consumers have moved to Digital Terrestrial Television and many of them already subscribe to various over-the-up [internet based] services. Plus many TV sets are now "connected" with pre-loaded app stores. With the phenomenal marketing clout of the BBC and the rest of the broadcasters combined - YouView, regardless of its uniqueness in an overcrowded marketplace, will more than likely be the contender to make the most sense to the general public - who don't have or want to sustain an expensive TV subscription. Plus its interface is simple. Mark Thompson, the outgoing director general of the BBC, has put YouView in the same bracket as the phenomenally successful iPlayer and Freeview - saying both of those product launches were much delayed and then went onto define the respective marketplaces. So, we come onto the exciting business opportunity YouView presents companies. Brands need their business development teams to be fully up to speed with every type of app store being offered across both connected TVs and connected set top boxes. If TV apps take off like their mobile counterparts have, then the TV experience is about to get a lot more interactive and creatively open to brands, still not allowed to places their products within programming in this country. But brands need be imaginative, developing in earnest and most importantly testing early. Investing in this new opportunity presented by YouView early could really promote a business's product. Beyond TV apps, a whole other world of real time advertising on platforms such as Twitter, which will eventually be running alongside content in a stream on the screen, is around the corner courtesy of connected TVs. YouView may have been delivered late - but now that it's nearly here - companies need to take note.