Digital TV News

Sky customers to get Five HD this summer

Thursday 18 March, 2010

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

You can watch high-definition episodes of Neighbours and Home & Away on Five HD, as the channel teams up with Sky.

Channel Five has signed a deal with satellite TV giant Sky (www.sky.co.uk) to offer a high-definition (HD) version of the channel to Sky+HD subscribers later this year, after losing its Freeview HD slot earlier this week.

Five HD will broadcast top US dramas such as CSI and FlashForward, popular soaps including Neighbours and Home & Away, international cricket and live Europa League football, as well as blockbuster movies, all in glorious high-definition.

Charles Constable, director of strategy at Five, said: “Our programme schedule is more suited to HD than that of any other major free-to-air commercial broadcaster given the wide range of high quality series we broadcast.”

The channel will start broadcasting in July and will be available to 2.1 million Sky+HD, homes.

Sky offers the largest range of HD channels in the UK, and aims to increase its high-definition line-up to 50 channels before Christmas this year.

Five will become the 42nd high-definition channel to join Sky, following news that ITV 1HD, Sky News HD, Sky Sports HD 4 and Hallmark Channel HD are all to launch in the next few months.

Sky’s director of product management, Hilary Perchard, added: “With the best of free and pay TV now in HD, there’s never been a better time to embrace HD.”

Sky's high-definition TV is available to all customers with a Sky+HD set-top box, and the HD viewing pack costs an additional £10 on top of the monthly subscription.

Jon Ingram, operations director at Digitalchoices.co.uk, said: “There’s an increasing demand for HD TV, and as more and more channels become available, households are looking to switch to a better digital TV deal that’s going to offer high-definition at an affordable price.”

“With the most channels available, Sky is a good choice, but the monthly subscriptions can be costly,” he added. “You should also consider Virgin Media if you live in an area that can receive cable TV. Although it has less channels than Sky, from 22 March a new HD set-top box will be available, costing just £49.”

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