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Sky gears up for HDTV launch

Movies Spider-Man 2 and Kill Bill: Vol I, US dramas 24 and Bones and sport including Premiership football will spearhead BSkyB's move into high definition television early next year.The satellite broadcaster said today it would launch initially HD versions of four channels - Sky One, Artsworld, Sky Sports and Sky Movies - when it introduces the enhanced service during the "early side" of next year.Brian Sullivan, the BSkyB director of new product development and sales, said the company was "getting close" to both an official launch date and pricing for the high definition service, which he promised would launch as a "mass market offering from day one".BSkyB's HDTV channels will be broadcast to a new HD Sky+ box capable of storing and time-shifting programmes and offering a picture quality around five times better than that of normal TV.The Sky HD service will come with a version of the latest sound system used in cinemas, Dolby 5.1, which Mr Sullivan promised would make watching live football matches akin to "sitting in the stadium"."You'll be able to sit at home and hear the crowds singing on both sides of the pitch," he said.In addition to offering four HD channels, Mr Sullivan added that Sky would also offer pay-per-view, video-on -demand content to the HD Sky+ boxes, which will come with a broadband connection.Sky One HD will have a mix of standard and high definition content, the latter mostly provided by US imports including 24, Rescue Me, Stargate and Bones.The HD sports channel will offer Guiness Premiership club rugby union and international cricket, as well as Premiership football.The broadcaster will convert, or "up-res", programmes shot in standard definition to improve picture quality, Mr Sullivan said."Everything that looks good in HD we'll put on it."Mr Sullivan said research showed that the number of HD-ready sets sold in the UK was rising faster than expected."We believe that by this Christmas there will be 700,000 HD-ready sets in the market; by next Christmas that will have risen to 2m and by 2020 there should be around 12 million."He declined to comment on plans by rivals such as Telewest, the BBC amd Discovery to launch HD services, saying only that Sky's would be "the first and only national HD service in the UK for a couple of years".Admitting Sky would like other broadcasters to launch HD channels, he said "they would be absolutely free to do so" on Sky Digital."At the launch we hope to have one or two HD channels that aren't produced by Sky," Mr Sullivan said.The BBC has been running HD tests since a demonstration unveiled at the technology exhibition IBC in Amsterdam in September.The BBC director of technology, Caroline Thomson, said last week the BBC was looking to develop HD on all digital platforms - terrestrial, satellite and cable.Ms Thomson suggested digital terrestrial service Freeview would be able to broadcast HD versions of the five main terrestrial channels, but that HD versions of BBC3 and BBC4 would have to go out on satellite only.· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

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