Sky coming to Freeview

It’s been announced that from ‘early 2010’, a number of Sky channels will be available on Freeview… soft of.

You may remember “Sky Picnic”, which was Sky’s proposed way of getting their pay-TV channels available to Freeview users. Picnic died about a year ago after trouble with the UK regulators.

Now, Sky over Freeview is back on the table, but this time through a link-up with UK firm IP Vision.

IP Vision are the firm behind the TV-over-Internet service Fetch TV. Their Smartbox 8000 (pictured) is a Freeview PVR that has an Internet connection. Fetch TV already offers a small selection of on-demand content, including content from the BBC iPlayer, and this week’s announcement will see Sky add their content to the Fetch TV offering.

Fetch TV 8000 Smartbox

According to Sky, Sky Player will be a standalone service on the Fetch TV box, offering a range of live TV channels (including Sky Movies, Sky Sport and entertainment channels). Existing Sky TV customers will be able to access a range of content for no extra cost based on their core subscription, whilst non-Sky customers will be able to sign up to a choice of TV packages via a monthly subscription paid directly to Sky.

More on Fetch TV on our Fetch TV section.