BBC to launch free digital service

THE BBC will launch its new multi-channel digital television service in Britain by early November as it moves to fill the gap left by collapsed pay-TV firm ITV Digital.

The BBC, which teamed up with Rupert Murdoch's satellite service BSkyB and transmitter operator Crown Castle International to bid for the licences of failed ITV Digital, said in July when it won the auction it aimed to start the service in the early autumn.

The service, to be named Freeview, is intended to help Britain become the world's first fully digital TV nation. The BBC will offer free-to-air services, in contrast to ITV Digital's failed effort to make money out of pay channels.

The hope is that the prospect of free content and the backing of the BBC will help to attract the 60% of British households that have yet to make the switch to digital television.

The government is likely to auction off the analogue spectrum once the nation has been converted to digital.

ITV Digital collapsed in April, having cost £1bn for shareholders in its owners, Granada and Carlton Communications. Administrators pulled the plug on ITV Digital after failing to find the money to settle its bills or a buyer for the business.

The 24 Freeview channels include entertainment channels BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC Choice, ITV and Sky Travel; news channels BBC News 24, Sky News, Sky Sports News, CNN and ITN; children's channels CBBC, Cbeebies and Boomerang and other culture and movie choices.

The 12-year terrestrial licences will allow the BBC consortium to broadcast programmes picked up through a conventional aerial and digital set, or a decoder set-top box. The decoder is expected to cost less than £100 and offers multi-channel TV without the need for a satellite dish or cable connection.

Its development will be key to the UK's aim to become fully digital by 2010. About 40% of British viewers already watch digital broadcasts, twice the European average.

The exact launch date for the new service will be announced next month.