Sky has welcomed plans by the BBC and ITV to launch a rival to its Freesat offering.

The broadcaster believes that the new service will help drive takeup of its pay TV packages.

"Freesat services already form part of Sky's strategy for continued pay-TV growth," the company said in a statement today. "As analogue switch-off approaches, we welcome increased promotion of satellite reception by ITV and the BBC"

Meanwhile, Channel 4 said that it would not be joining the BBC-ITV alliance, nor was it considering going unencrypted on satellite.

"We broadly welcome any development that offers more UK homes the chance to receive the full range of digital services and creates more competition between platforms. We will watch how Freesat develops with interest," said a spokesman.

"However, we have carriage agreements for all our channels with Sky Digital and we have a number of years to run on these deals. We're happy with our current distribution deals with Sky and have no present plans to review these arrangements."