Reports have confirmed that the BBC Trust is expected give its approval to Project Canvas, the "video-on-demand joint venture", as early as this week, although with certain conditions attached.

Supporters and backers of the Project Canvas include the BBC, ITV and BT, and it has been under the scrutiny microscope of the BBC Trust for most part of the year now, and a demand for additional information has been made time and again from all the partners involved.

Things now seem to be looking up for the project, as the Trust will, over the next few days, announce a "provisional approval", which a source has described as a "conditional yes", for now and this will be followed by a "final consultation period" which will run till mid-January next year.

Heavy criticism has been thrown Project Canvas's way by BSkyB, which has stressed that problems exist over "membership, the lack of a full market impact assessment and potential breaches of European Union state aid rules relating to use of the license fee", and the BBC Trust has issues with the cost of the project, which the 4 partners have estimated will be around 115.6 Million Pounds over the first 4 years.

Despite the impending approval, it has been reported that if the conditions attached seem to be overly restrictive, they could result in the Project being badly hurt when it hits the markets.