Five HD Comes To Sky, Virgin Media Next?

Five might have decided to say no to Freeview HD as announced yesterday but that doesn't mean that the Bertelsmann owned company is not giving up on HD yet.

Instead, it will be launching on Sky's HD platform which currently counts more than two million subscribers.

The roll out will occur in July and will give Five significantly more exposure overnight compared to the Freeview HD or Freesat HD.

Five HD will become the 42nd channel to join Sky's HD line up and allows the satcaster to become the first high definition platform to offer all the terrestrial channels in HD.

Sky is aiming to reach 50 HD channels by the end of the year and at the current rate should reach this before September.

On the other hand, Virgin Media has managed to sign SyFy and has an exclusive agreement with Film 4 HD.

Interestingly, Virgin Media and Sky have adopted two different strategies to popularise high definition content.

Virgin Media has announced yesterday that it will be selling its new HD box for £49 only excluding installation charges.

Furthermore, it won't be charging anything for the HD content, something that will surely help given that it has significantly fewer HD channels.

In comparison, Sky will charge you an additional £10 per month on top of the normal TV standard definition package. This means that it will cost you a minimum of £28 per month to get HD from Sky.