March 17, 2010

Five HD launching on Sky in July

Just days after Freeview said that Five HD wasn't coming soon to the platform, Sky and Five have announced it will be on Sky this summer:
Five and Sky today announced the launch this summer of Five HD, a high definition version (HD) of Five  which will show programming that has been made in HD. Five HD will start broadcasting to more than 2 million Sky HD homes in July.
It's not been announced as exclusive to Sky though, so it's likely to appear on Virgin Media too. Interesting that Sky are offering it without requiring customers to subscribe to the monthly £10 HD supplement - I can see that disappearing (or maybe just remaining for the Sports and Movies channels) soon, especially as Virgin have upped the stakes on what's available for nowt.

4 comments:

BikeNutt said...

Fingers crossed for VM customers!

BTW I hope Five change that stupid new DOG they've used for a few weeks. It's solid white now (previously translucent) and gives image retention on my plasma after an hour long show. They really are going backwards with this: first no DOG at all, then a translucent one, and now a solid one. Muppets!

Unknown said...

The 'Five' channels are amongst our favourite here, damn I hope we get this HD channel! I'd also LOVE to see FIVE USA in HD :-)

Big Red said...

I fully expect BBC HD, ITV HD, C4 & Five HD to be free as these are free to air channels anyway.

The slot reserved for Channel Five on Freeview HD will now revert to the BBC. but it seems the BBC will now use this extra slot for BBC News HD to compete against the Sky News HD release.

BBC HD channel will contuie to broadcast HD shows which are shown across both BBC1 and BBC2

Five have yet to release a press statement.

Big Red said...

Looking all over different websites this seems to be a Sky hand out.
Five are cash strapped hence why they pulled the freeview HD plug

Unless VM can offer the same sort of deal as Sky it seems this will be a Sky HD channel