Sky have announced a new deal this morning, bringing their on-demand Sky Player to Humax Freeview set-top boxes, expanding the number of Sky viewers by thousands.

The deal comes hot on the heels of similar ones made with 3View and TV manufacturers Cello, as well as Microsoft and the Xbox 360. However, the new partnership with the popular Humax brand is a significant move for Sky, as Humax themselves are key players in the now-lucrative Freeview market.

"Until recently, Sky Player has largely been confined to the PC screen but that is changing fast. Since last autumn, it has been available on the Xbox and this year it will roll out to more broadband-enabled devices through deals with the likes of Fetch TV, 3 View and Cello," said Sky's chief executive Jeremy Darroch.

"Just today, we're announcing a further expansion of Sky Player through a new agreement with Humax, the leading provider of Freeview boxes. And there are more deals in the pipeline."

Speaking in Cannes, much of Darroch's speech focussed on Sky's fight with Ofcom over the price of its premium sports content. The expansion of the Sky Player and the increasing move away from satellite based services seems to show that quality content is the most high on Sky's agenda.

"In providing both new and existing customers with more choice and control over how they access Sky content, we continue to harness secure and high-quality distribution platforms like Humax," said Griff Parry, Sky's Director of On-Demand.

"We know that many Sky homes also have Freeview in other rooms, and this provides a great way for them to enjoy Sky away from their Sky box. And for new customers, particularly those in Freeview homes, it provides an innovative new access point to Sky's high-quality pay TV content."

Humax's Graham North added:"The addition of Sky Player on our Freeview HD boxes ensures Humax is positioned to offer consumers an exciting way to experience digital TV, with great content and a range of home networking and content sharing features."

Sky's online TV service will launch across Humax's new range of IP-enabled high definition Freeview boxes, including the Humax HD-FOX T2.

FIFA and Sony today revealed their 3D broadcasting plans for this summer's 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.

However, English fans have been left out in the cold, with no group stage fixtures for England making the jump to 3D, nor any TV broadcasting schedule announced. Instead we'll have to hope England get through to the knock-out stages to see Rooney and co. in the third dimension. But even then we'll have to hunt out a cinema projecting the game in 3D, as Sky's 3D channel will not be showing the games.

ITV and BBC are the co-rights-holders of the coverage, and so far neither have announced any further plans to broadcast 3D content from the World Cup.

"You might be curious to know why [sic] the selection criteria," said Niclas Ericson, FIFA's director of TV. "It is a very difficult one but the main issue was that we wanted to have a good spread of the matches in terms of matchdays covered.

"We also wanted to make sure that the key games would be in this production schedule such as the opening, the final stage matches and, of course, the final in Soccer City. There were a lot of other reasons such as production reasons and logistics and space.

"Some of you here I'm sure will wonder why...England versus USA is not being used. It's a very hot match on June 12 and [it] is not possible to do it because of the various constraints that we have.

"But we feel you should not despair. England will make it through the final rounds and then we will show that."

Nice try at smoothing things over Ericson, but considering Brazil are getting three 3D group games and Spain, Argentina, Germany, Holland and Nigeria are getting two apiece, it still doesn't seem all that fair.

Channel Five and Sky have today announced that Five will be launching a HD service for Sky+HD subscribers this July.

It means Five's many top-rated US dramas such as CSI and FlashFoward will get a HD makeover, as well as Aussie soaps Neighbours and Home & Away, Europa League Football, international cricket and movies.

Five becomes the 42nd channel to hit Sky's HD line-up, following news that ITV 1HD, Sky News HD, Sky Sports HD 4 and the Hallmark Channel HD are all set to launch in the coming months. Sky plan to have 50 HD channels by this Christmas.

Charles Constable, Five's Director of Strategy, said: "This is an exciting opportunity for Five. Our programme schedule is more suited to HD than that any other major free-to-air commercial broadcaster given the wide range of high quality series we broadcast, such as our top-rated line-up of US dramas.  We're delighted to begin our HD journey with Sky."

Looking forward to having a few beers down your local and watching the World Cup in 3D this summer? Looks like BskyB have got you covered, having snapped up 15,000 3D TVs from LG to be installed in pubs this Spring.

The idea is to drum up interest in Sky's first 3D TV channel, set for launch sometime around April.

"These partnerships will help consumers become more familiar with 3D TVs and that can only be a positive for the industry and innovation", said?Havis Kwon, executive vice president and head of the LG's LCD division.

Though there is plenty of buzz surrounding 3D TVs at the moment, analysts have predicted a slow start to 3D TV sales. Perhaps this latest wave of televisions has come a little too soon after the HD revolution, with consumers comfortable sticking with their 2D1080p HD sets instead.

After long negotiations, ITV HD is finally coming to Sky and Virgin Media TV services on April 2nd. The news means that almost all of the 64 World Cup matches from this year's tournament in South Africa will be available to UK viewers in high-definition.

The service will also get an upgrade for Freesat viewers. ITV 1 HD will now be given a dedicated channel on the service, rather than being a red button feature.

"All of our output will benefit from the stunning picture quality that high definition offers, whether it's ITV's original drama, landmark factual shows, entertainment events or our live football," said Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, channels and online.

Sky subscribers will also get high-definition launches for the Hallmark and Sky Sports 4 channels. With over 40 HD channels under their belt, Sky are aiming to have 50 up and running by Christmas of this year.

Via:Guardian

Migrating to new tech always tends to bring with it some compatibility issues between devices, but thankfully Sky seem to have ironed out any possible problems with their upcoming Sky 3D service.

The satellite TV giants sent out a message today, reiterating that "Sky 3D, its forthcoming 3D TV service and Europe's first 3D TV channel, will be compatible with all 3D TVs being introduced by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG.  Sky 3D will work with both 'active' and 'passive' 3D formats." That means that no matter what new 3D TV set you get, Sky have pretty much got you covered.

Dont fret if you're already a Sky+ HD subscriber but are not planning on upgrading your set just yet. Sky's HD content already available will not be affected by the additional 3D channels.

Look for Sky 3D to roll out sometime over the summer. For more info, click here.

Traipsing through the cavernous Westfield shopping centre might not be as arduous a task as it sounds next week, thanks to a special 3D TV trial that Sky are running.

Sky will be handing out 3D glasses to shopaholics visiting Westfield, where they will be treated to a short demo of 3D sports and catwalk clips.

With 3D TVs hitting stores next month, Sky will be looking to raise the profile of its own 3D broadcast service, which it aims to roll out later this year.

Thankfully, if you're already a Sky+ HD subscriber, there will be no need to upgrade your existing set top box as they will already be fully compatible with Sky's 3D service. Of course, you'll still need to shell out for a new 3D-compatible telly, but Sky are hoping to make the prospect a little more enticing by launching a new range of sports, movies, arts and documentaries channels all showcasing the extra dimension.

The trial will be running at the Sky Retail Store on Westfield's level 2. For more info on Sky's 3D services, click here.

To celebrate 50 years of being on the goggle-box, Coronation Street is all set to get its own Wii game. There are few details on the title so far, other than that you can expect street-stars from past and present to all make an appearance. We've always hoped to pull a virtual pint or two with the Wii-mote down the Rovers Return, truth be told.

The news got the Shiny team thinking: what would be the best shows to get a bit of an interactive makeover on Nintendo's Wii?

Check out our gallery below for some truly inspired choices.

Sky TV and Microsoft have teamed up to integrate the Sky Player into Windows Media Center. Users will now be able to stream on-demand Sky content straight from their Windows Media Center library.

All the features of the standalone Sky Player have been included here, meaning as many as 27 live channels as well as a load of movies can be watched inside the Windows Media Center application.

The Sky Player will be built into any forthcoming Windows 7 upgrades, and is available free of charge. Additional costs for certain premium channels applies for those who are not Sky subscribers.

For more info, click here.

Sky TV have just launched a Symbian compatible TV streaming app on the Ovi Store.

The Sky TV app will let Sky subscribers watch live Premiership football on their Symbian handsets, check the Sky news headline feed and remotely program your Sky + box.

Sky TV has already been previously available on the iPhone. While such V streaming apps can be a bit of a burden on data usage plans, they're a nifty way to catch all the latest sporting action on he go.

The app will work with Nokia N97, N97 Mini, 5800 and 5530 Symbian phones. A version compatible with the 5320 and Nokia X6 is on its way, while a version without the TV streaming feature will be availabe on a further ten Nokia handsets.

You can pick the Nokia Sky TV app up here.

Perhaps it's a knock on effect of the global rescession, but the latest report by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has found that TV viewing is at the highest it has been in 18 years.

Viewers watched an average of 3.75 hours of TV a day last year, the highest figure since 1992, according to IPA research.

As one would expect to find, the first and last quarters of the year, with less daylight and fewer people away on holiday, tended to show the highest television viewing figures.

Interestingly, the IPA revealed that only 8.2 % of UK households relied on an analogue signal to catch their favourite shows, showing that the digital switch-over is almost complete.

While ITV and GMTV gathered 19% of the total television audience in the last three months of 2009, likely thanks to the popularity of the X-Factor, BBC1 continued to achieve the highest share of all the terrestrial channels, at 21%. All five analogue channels continue to lose ground however, as multi-channel satellite options grow in prominence.

Ever seen a rugby player's cauliflower ear in high-definition? Well now you can, free of charge, thanks to Freesat HD and the BBC HD channel.

The annual 6 Nations rugby tournament will be broadcast on BBC HD from February 6th until the 20th of March, with Ireland and Italy squaring up in the first match.

Sport fans can also look forward to The World Cup on the BBC HD channel and ITV1 HD, as well as Winter Olympics, Golf Masters, Wimbledon, FA Cup and UEFA Champions league matches.

For more info, check out www.freesat.co.uk.

As if you weren't already sick of snow as it is, Freesat have today confirmed that you'll be able to watch all the coverage from this years 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics in high-definition, at no extra charge.

The HD coverage kicks off on the 12th February with the game's grand opening ceremony.

It looks set to be a good year for sport-loving Freesat owners. The World Cup, Golf Masters, Rugby Six Nations and Wimbledon will all be available on the BBC HD Channel with the FA Cup, England World Cup internationals and UEFA Champions league matches also being presented in high definition over on ITV1 HD.

For more info, visit www.freesat.co.uk.

The message boards over at our Shiny friends HDTVUK have been alight with readers venting their spleens over the new-look Sky + HD Guide, which completed its nationwide roll-out last week.

Many of you have been complaining that the new Sky Guide isn't up to scratch, either running too slowly, not being particularly intuitive or with text too small to read.

Alex Foligno posted on December 17th:

SERIOUSLY AWFUL the greatest injusticed (sic) is the fact that non-HD (lower paying customers) have the classic menu which we have all loved for the past decade. A CLASSIC option would be much appreciated.

James followed up with a similar sentiment:

I thought I would give it a go for a week before I complained as I thought it would grow on me. I was wrong. I still hate it. I want the old one back. The old one was straight forward and easy to use. This one is just a mess. It really puts me off watching TV.

Some readers have had such difficulty reading the new guide that they have contacted the Royal National Institute of Blind People, believing the new guide to be an affront to accessibility for the visually impaired.

Your complaints have not fallen upon death ears completely however! A Sky customer services representative today confirmed to HDTVUK that visually impaired Sky viewers will be able to revert back to the previous Sky + EPG if they wish. However Sky + HD subscribers will have to downgrade to a Sky + box in order to get the old guide back. This may be however just a temporary solution, as all Sky boxes, including earlier models, are expected to take on the new look guide sooner rather than later.

What do you think? Should all Sky +HD subscribers be given the option to revert back to the previous guide? Or are the complaints all smoke and no fire, with the guide being well suited to your needs?

Let us know!

(Thanks to HDTVUK reader Mark for the tip!)

BSkyB will go no further towards making their content available free on Google's YouTube, the Daily Telegraph have revealed today.

The news comes as another twist in the saga between Richard Murdoch's News Corp (majority stakeholders in Sky) and YouTube owners Google. News Corp have previously labelled Google as "parasites" and "thieves" for what they consider is the unfair distribution of their news content.

Sky were beginning to warm to the idea of distributing full length shows on YouTube, but have decided that the content would have to come at a price. With YouTube as yet unprepared to put a premium on content found on their site, it appears that Murdoch and co. are attempting to hammer home their mantra that no good journalism comes free of charge.

A Sky spokesman said: "The pay model is at the heart of our business and allows us to invest significantly in high-quality, distinctive content."

Sky do offer an online video-on-demand service, their Sky Player. However, the Sky Player is only available to those who already have a subscription with the Pay TV merchants.

Though Google refused to comment directly on negotiations with Sky, a spokesman said: "We are, of course, always talking to rights holders large and small about the distribution and revenue opportunities for their content on YouTube."

Via: The Daily Telegraph

The first technical transmissions of Freeview HD have begun today.

The Winter Hill transmitter group is currently beaming broadcasts to select areas of Manchester, with the Crystal Palace group doing the same for pockets of London. They are the first in the world to adopt the DVB-T2 standard and MPEG-4.

James Jackson, BBC head of broadcast infrastructure carried out a demonstration live at the BBC Media Centre. Promotional cuts from BBC HD and ITV HD broadcast by the Crystal Hill group were displayed using brand new IDTV's manufactured by Sony and Panasonic. Both channels were fully incorporated into the Freeview electronic programme guide.

Though the BBC broadcast was the same as is currently available on Freesat, ITV's offering was currently just an upscaled broadcast of the ITV1 channel. ITV have committed however to broadcast most of their top peak programme scheduling in full HD as the service becomes more widespread.

The BBC hope to have a national coverage of 50% for Freeview HD in time for the 2010 World Cup, reaching its maximum 98.5% national coverage by late 2012. Channel 4 also hope to launch a Freeview HD channel in the new year, with as many as five other HD channels in the wings from the network.

For news of when your area will be receiving Freeview HD broadcasts, click here.

Sky have confirmed they are testing a 3D outside broadcast system that will be capable of delivering 3D football.

A dedicated channel will likely bring the beautiful game into the third dimension sometime in 2010, and will be compatible with current Sky dishes and HD set-top boxes. However, a 3D enabled TV will be necessary to view the content.

For all its merits, there are a couple of players we think wont benefit much from the jump to 3D. Click here to see what we mean.

We mentioned this a few weeks ago, but now it has been confirmed - the BBC iPlayer is coming to Freesat.

Now slated to launch next month the service will enable owners of Freesat satellite TV boxes to access the iPlayer's on demand programming via a TV. The iPlayer is already available to Virgin Media and BT Vision box owners but both of those services require a subscription whereas Freesat is free after the initial purchase of the equipment.

It won't just be BBC content on the service either; apparently ITV is set to deliver its catch up TV service the ITV Player next year.

The iPlayer service will be rolled out to a select few Freesat owners in the next few weeks with the service available across the network by Christmas.

The "crown jewels" of sporting events are to come under review by the Government, which may see media giants Sky forced to relinquish their exclusive rights to the Ashes cricket test series. The review could see the Ashes returning to channels that do not require a subscription fee.

Sky currently has an exclusivity deal on the Ashes worth £250 million, but former FA chief David Davies, who is heading the review, believes that sporting events with such "national resonance" should be widely available beyond subscription services.

Theories are already circulating that the Government move is a bargaining chip following deteriorating relations with Sky owners News Corporation. News Corporation also own the Sun newspaper, which recently voiced its change of allegiance from Labour to Conservative in the run up to the next general election.

The company's billionaire owner Rupert Murdoch has said to have had received a personal call from Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week to address the flailing relations.