Tiscali adds Sky channels to TV platform

BSkyB and Tiscali UK have announced a deal to add the full set of Sky basic channels to the Tiscali TV platform. 

The deal will make Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, Sky Arts, Sky Travel, Sky News and Sky Sports News available to Tiscali TV customers in the UK within the next few weeks.

The channels are in addition to Sky Movies and Sky Sports which are already available via the Tiscali TV platform.

"I am very pleased to announce our deal with Sky for the provision of its channels on the Tiscali TV service," said Mary Turner, chief executive of Tiscali UK.

"The content is of the highest quality and means that Tiscali TV customers have even more viewing content to choose from."

Virgin Media, which had been airing Sky's basic channels, had a disagreement with Sky in February over the price that Virgin should pay for the service. 

The spat resulted in the channels being removed from Virgin Media's service at the end of February.

The incident generated accusations and public messages from both companies, and it seems that Virgin has been hit hard as a result, losing nearly 47,000 customers in the past quarter. 

Tiscali continues to go from strength to strength, however, as Ofcom figures show that its number of customers with TV over broadband grew by 44 per cent in the first quarter of 2007.

Mike Darcey, chief operating officer at Sky, said: "We are delighted that Tiscali has chosen to invest in our suite of basic channels and use them to differentiate its expanding TV service.

"This is an endorsement of our decision to increase investment in our basic channels by almost 70 per cent in the past five years."