BBC deal to screen 24 free channels

TV viewers are to get a huge choice of new free channels under a major shake-up of the airwaves announced today.

For the first time digital channels which before cost up to £40 a month via subscription to satellite or cable packages will be available free to everyone under a joint BBC and BSkyB deal.

All consumers need to do is buy a set-top box costing between £100 to £150 to receive the 24 channels, which will include Sky News, Turner Classic Movies, BBC Choice, BBC History and the children's television channel Boomerang.

The details emerged after a decision to give the BBC and its traditional rival BSkyB the right to run digital terrestrial television from later this year.

The Independent Television Commission hopes the former rivals will prove that digital television can work on a mass scale. BBC and BSkyB have been given the licence following the failure of ITV Digital which collapsed in April after failing to win enough subscribers and falling heavily into debt.

The BBC and BSkyB bid beat off competition from a joint bid by ITV and Channel 4.

At the moment, an estimated four million people have subscribed to Sky and digital cable packages. The BBCSky-service will offer viewers a package-of 24 channels free. As well as the five existing terrestrial channels, all the BBC's digital channels, (BBC Choice, BBC Four, BBC News 24, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC Parliament) will be offered, along with a new BBC Channel, BBC History.

Viewers will also get access to ITV 1, ITV2, Channels 4 and 5, Sky, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel, CNN, ITN News Channel, QVC and an as yet unnamed music channel.

There will be space for BBC interactive channels when they become available, and the six digital radio stations offered from the BBC can also be accessed from the system. New boxes which are able to receive the signal are available in the shops. Although Sky Sports News is included in the package, the popular Sky Sports is not.

When ITV Digital went into administration earlier this year, it left available a chunk of TV spectrum - the section of airwaves which beams sound and pictures to TV aerials.

The section is to be split up into a maximum of about 30 channels. This lower number of channels (ITV Digital was offering 36), is good news for viewers who complained of a poor signal from ITV Digital.

Approximately 60 per cent of the population could not receive the ITV Digital signal, but it is estimated that some 80 per cent of viewers will be able to get the signal from the new service.

The disastrous collapse of ITV Digital has left consumers wary of shelling out more money for another digital TV service. Recent research showed that one in three never want digital television.

The company went into administration in April after a long-drawn out death, taking with it £1.2 billion of debt to subscribers as well as the Football League and BSkyB.

The Football League is now suing ITV's parent companies Granada and Carlton, to try to recover its lost money.

A number of senior executives have left the company in the wake of the disaster, starting with ITV chief executive Stuart Prebble. Yesterday David Liddiment, ITV's most powerful programming executive, quit after five years.