ITV Catch-up service to follow BBC on to Freesat, Tim Bradshaw reports

The BBC iPlayer will be available on Freesat boxes from next month, followed by ITV’s on-demand service in 2010, as the convergence of internet video on to regular television sets quickens.

Limited testing of the iPlayer on Freesat HD boxes – which pick up digital TV via satellite – will begin on December 7, with a full rollout of 450 hours of programming to the 600,000 Freesat HD homes expected to be completed next year.

ITVPlayer, the broadcaster’s catch-up service, will be available subscription-free on the TV screen for the first time next year. It is expected to launch on Freesat before the summer’s football World Cup.

Freesat HD boxes, which cost from about £100, all come with an internet connection built in and to receive iPlayer require only the insertion of a cable, attached to a broadband line of one megabit per second or faster. Aside from an internet subscription, there is no fee for viewing ITVPlayer or iPlayer on Freesat, which is jointly owned by the BBC and ITV.

ITVPlayer has had 2m unique visitors this year, up 150 per cent on 2008.

The BBC said on Wednesday that October was the most popular month yet for the iPlayer, serving up 97.2m TV and radio programmes. Of that, 26 per cent were watched through Virgin Media’s catch-up service.

“We are focused on getting the iPlayer available in as many places as possible, where it is technically possible and from a cost point of view,” said Rahul Chak-kara, controller of TV platforms in the BBC’s Future Media and Technology unit.

Freesat claims to be the fastest growing TV platform in the UK, selling 200,000 boxes in this year’s third quarter. It expects to reach 1m homes by March 2010.

The progress of bringing internet video to the TV screen is suddenly making rapid advances, says Nigel Walley of Decipher, a digital media consultancy.

“Everyone thought that TV was going to evolve, but it feels much more like a revolution,” he said. Bringing iPlayer to services such as Freesat was creating greater competition for Project Canvas – the joint internet venture between the BBC, ITV and BT.