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Freesat to link TV and broadband

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Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

The BBC outlined ambitious plans for Freesat, its digital TV venture with ITV, such as offering access to broadband TV services such as the iPlayer and Kangaroo (09-05-08).

At the press launch this week, Mark Thompson, BBC director general, said that the corporation planned to offer set-top boxes with a built-in ethernet connection for broadband access.

“The long-term goal of Freesat is to connect to broadband and the internet [to make] services such as the iPlayer and Kangaroo accessible through boxes like this,” he said.

Although Thompson said that Freesat - which will be a fundamentally free platform - is not intended as a competitor to Sky (www.Sky.com), Sky is also gearing up to add broadband access to its Sky+ boxes and Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV told The Guardian that ITV would not necessarily need to do a deal with Sky for its High Definition service as it would be available on Freesat.

“ITV HD won’t be available on Sky at the moment,” he said. “We are a commercial organisation and won't give it to Sky for nothing.”

Sky also offers a free service - Freesat from Sky - but as Thompson said, it “has not been front of mind to date”.

“Freesat represents a new choice out there in the market and more choice,” he added.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “Freesat from the BBC and ITV will inject new life into the digital TV market and with its built-in broadband access will really offer something new to consumers.

“Although other free digital TV services are available - such as Freesat from Sky and BT Vision (www.BT.com) - these have not yet taken off in a major way. But as each area switches over to digital, more people will be looking for cheap ways to go digital and Freesat will represent a great choice.”

Currently Freesat will cover the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, but Channel Five is expected to join in the near future.

Click here to visit DigitalChoices.co.uk for all your digital TV needs.

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