ONdigital May Develop New DTV Offer To Compete With BSkyB

This morning’s announcement by BSkyB that it intends to offer digital satellite television customers free set-top boxes and reduced cost BT telephone calls (see Digital TV War Intensifies) has been described by rival digital terrestrial broadcaster, ONdigital, as “great news for the digital TV market.”

Sky’s offer comes just as ONdigital unveils its planned promotion of offering a ‘free’ set-top box worth £200 to consumers who buy a new television set worth £200. However ONdigital’s Andrew Marre says that Sky will not be in the market with its offers until June; the ONdigital offer begins this Friday, 7 May.

ONdigital’s set-top box incentive is set to run for the course of this month. When asked by Newsline whether ONdigital would launch a new offer in June, to compete more strongly with Sky, Marre said: “We always have new offers; we are very competitive.”

In a statement released this afternoon, the digital terrestrial television company said: “It is clear that the growth of [integrated] digital televisions represents a considerable competitive opportunity for ONdigital, which satellite and cable simply cannot match… We welcome competition; we will remain competitive.”

ONdigital: 0171 819 8000