BskyB chief rules out new channel

BSkyB chief executive James Murdoch has ruled out launching a new mainstream advertising-funded channel for the foreseeable future and instead plans to concentrate on increasing the number of paying subscribers to its existing channels.

In the past under his predecessor, Tony Ball, BSkyB frequently hinted that once the number of subscribers to free-to-air digital service Freeview increased to a certain level, plans for a new channel may be rolled out which would aim to take on ITV and other terrestrial rivals.

However Murdoch is believed to have scrapped plans for any move into mainstream advertising-funded channels for the foreseeable future, instead opting to make its core pay-TV offering more attractive.