BSkyB to launch new free channel

Bosses at BSkyB are considering launching a new television channel free to all viewers.

The station, funded by advertising, has been dubbed Channel 6 as it would join BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five as a major player in UK broadcasting. It could have a £200million budget for programmes and launch within three years to exploit the boom in digital television.

BSkyB executives said that if free digital TV takes off, they would exploit the market by launching the new channel but it would depend on the Government switching off the country's analogue TV service.

The new channel would appear on the Freeview digital platform as well as BSkyB's digital network. Its large programme budget would make it a major competitor for the existing major channels, and it would be free for viewers - unlike BSkyB's entertainment channel, Sky One.

The possibility of Channel 6 was raised at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge, where a panel chaired by BBC director general Greg Dyke examined how the TV industry could change by 2010.

Mr Dyke has welcomed a major review of the BBC and the licence fee.

Media and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the review in the run-up to charter renewal in 2006 would look at funding.

She has appointed Lord Burns, former permanent secretary to the Treasury and currently Abbey National chairman, as an independent adviser on the charter review.

Mr Dyke said he was not concerned that the announcement had come during the Hutton Inquiry. "I do not see anything sinister in this," he said. "I think we welcome it."