[nj2006]

Sky's chief operating officer Mike Darcey has criticised ITV for making its high definition channel available exclusively on Freesat.

"ITV want to have their cake and eat it," Darcey said after Freesat's launch yesterday.

"On the one hand, they are claiming to champion HD for all, while on the other, they are deliberately withholding free-to-air content from almost half a million Sky HD homes."

The channel is expected to launch soon and will only be available via ITV's red button interactive services on Freesat.

"This is neither in viewers' interests nor in keeping with ITV’s 'HD for all' posturing," said Darcey. "All in all, this is curious behaviour for a public service broadcaster."

Sky also yesterday questioned why licence fee proceeds should have been spent on Freesat, when its own non-subscription service, FreesatFromSky, has been on the market since 2004.

The standard product costs £150 including installation, though this does not provide access to HD channels. A Sky HD box, which retailers at a greater cost, offers BBC HD and Channel 4 HD with no subscription.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade and BBC director general Mark Thompson yesterday defended the need for Freesat.

Grade said: "If you go the Freesat (from Sky) route then you are not going to have people driving you mad selling you up to a subscription, encrypted service, because that is basically what happens today. And ITV HD will only be on Freesat."

Thompson added: "Sky have got a very successful platform where the overwhelming majority of people want pay services. Freesat is not intended to compete with the Sky satellite proposition... although Sky does have a free offering, it is currently expensive and the manufacturers are indicating that it will be more possible to switch to Freesat than they could in the past.

"Sky have a complicated market and what they are trying to get people to do is to subscribe to pay television, so to date, their free proposition was not exactly front of mind when they talk about Sky to the public."

Sky's critical reaction to Freesat appears contrary to more positive noises it made during the early stages of the service's development.