Advanced Television

Freesat: 3m sales,YouTube launch

February 11, 2013

By Colin Mann

UK subscription-free satellite TV service Freesat has revealed that it has sold its 3 millionth product, taking gross retail sales to well over £1 billion, four years after the service first launched in 2008. It also confirmed that YouTube will soon be available on the platform, claimed as a first for free British TV.

Freesat added 55,000 new households in the third quarter of 2012. This is more than Sky (25,000 households) and BT Vision (20,000) combined in the same period.

Emma Scott, Freesat’s Managing Director said that in just four years, Freesat had established itself as a real challenger and genuine alternative to pay-TV. “In that time we’ve delivered choice and quality, subscription free. Customer choice has driven every stage of our development; not least the launch of our second generation service, <free time>, in Q3 of last year. We’re now delighted to add to our already fantastic customer offering with YouTube. They join Freesat at a time of rapid growth for our business and will offer our viewers an exclusive, first view of their latest version – previously unseen on free to air TV in the UK,” she noted.

Access to YouTube will soon be possible from the Freesat platform. The version of YouTube that will be launched is built on HTML 5 and will be its very latest iteration offering a TV-optimised, visually stunning and fully interactive viewing experience.

Peter Sherman, Product Marketing Manager for YouTube said: “We’re happy to be working with Freesat so that Freesat users can now access YouTube from the platform. Our creator community is developing quality content that will delight and inspire viewers and we’re pleased to be able to bring it to people in new ways.”

“Today’s great news is a testament to our ongoing commitment to delivering genuine viewer choice,” added Scott.

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