BT launching pay-to-view TV service

British telecoms group BT is set to launch its own pay-to-view television service in a bid to diversify away from its traditional telephone operations.

The video-on-demand service will be offered to consumers through a broadband phone line and they will need a set-top box to view it.

The group is in talks with a number of content providers, including the BBC, about showing sitcoms, films and soap operas through the service, and hopes to get as many different providers on board, possibly including BSkyB.

Trials of the system are due to start on a few hundred customers this week, and BT hopes to have a full commercial launch of the service next summer.

Pricing for the service has yet to be finalised, but the set-top boxes are likely to cost slightly more than Freeview boxes at around £50.

The group has not yet worked out how much it will cost to download individual programmes.

However, any revenue is likely to be split between BT and the content provider.

The move is part of BT’s strategy to end the company’s dependence on traditional telephone services, and focus on increasing revenues from new services such as broadband.

Giles Beards, head of media relations for the group’s retail business, said: “It’s an extremely exciting way of developing the internet.

“At the moment when you turn your TV on the company decides what you can watch. This will put you in charge of the viewing experience.”

Last week BT announced it had won a £32 million contract to build a network to support all the radar, communications and air traffic control centres operated by National Air Traffic Services (Nats).