“In terms of what I understand, I think it’s incredibly exciting. It will finally - for many, many people - remove the barriers between lean-forward and lean-back technology.

“The chaos of the internet - for better or worse - will arrive in our living rooms. All the potential of IPTV will finally become something that consumers will appreciate.”

But Hunt stressed that, as secretary of state, he is separated from any competition oversight Canvas may receive. At least four complaints, from Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) and hyperlocal TV broadcasters, are currently being considered by Ofcom, urging the regulator to open an antitrust investigation before Canvas boxes launch next year.

Hunt also said Canvas will present a broadband challenge as Canvas (VOD and other services delivered to TV over broadband) will be bandwidth-hungry.

“If we are to be the most innovative place for digital content, we need to have the fastest broadband speeds - we need to have much, much faster upload speeds as well as downloads speeds.”

Hunt unveiled his broadband strategy (essentially, consultations to check whether public utility ducts can be opened for telco infrastructure) earlier this summer.

At The Media Festival Arts, he said this is a strategy out of the 80s and 90s - “an intelligent regulatory regime delivered the cable and satellite revolution at no cost to the taxpayer”.

Update: Canvas says it received 40 submissions of interest from technology makers keen to make Canvas-compliant boxes or TVs.

Canvas has also finally released the first of its specs - some loose principles on DRM.