Digital TV News

Freeview homes get Sky Player via FetchTV

Friday 21 May, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

Fancy giving your Freeview a boost with on-demand and catch-up TV? Get a new FetchTV set-top box and watch some of Sky’s top satellite TV channels without a 12-month subscription

Satellite TV giant Sky (www.sky.co.uk) has teamed up with internet TV provider IP Vision to offer Freeview homes a wide range of channels without the need for a satellite dish.

The service is made possible thanks to FetchTV, the UK’s first web-enabled Freeview+ set-top box, which now comes with the Sky Player built-in, allowing users to access hundreds of programmes, sports channels and movies on-demand directly through their internet connection.

Eddie Abrams, CEO of FetchTV, said: “Freeview customers who have one of our FetchTV SmartBoxes can now access and watch Sky’s pay TV content on their TVs over the open internet.”

FetchTV set-top boxes offer “a hybrid Freeview, catch up TV and on-demand service”, and let users watch some top Sky channels, including Sky Sports, Sky1 and Sky Movies, using their broadband connection, either wirelessly or with an ethernet cable.

“Consumers now have a real choice of how they can access fantastic sports, movies and entertainment content on their TV screens,” added Abrams.

The Sky Player currently shows a number of live Sky TV channels, including movies and sports, and was previously only available via computers and the Nintendo Xbox 360 games console.

FetchTV set-top boxes can be bought from John Lewis, Currys and selected Carphone Warehouse branches, with prices starting from £179. The box is also Freeview+ enabled, so users will be able to watch, record, pause and rewind all programmes shown on the Freeview channels.

Griff Parry, on-demand director at Sky, said: “Sky is very much into giving consumers as many options as it can, and Freeview homes will now have an easier option to sign-up to Sky.”

Using the Sky Player on FetchTV is free for existing Sky TV subscribers if they have a multiroom package or Sky’s unlimited broadband service. Non-Sky customers can sign-up to a choice of TV packages through a monthly subscription with no fixed-term contract, and prices start from £15 a month.