Sky seeks marketing agency for Picnic

Sky is looking to appoint a marketing agency to promote its proposed DTT service, Picnic, it has been reported.

The service has not yet been approved by Ofcom but Sky is said to be inviting firms to pitch for both online and offline work later this month.

Brand Republic also reported that Sagem was the first manufacturer expected to offer a Picnic set top box, though others will follow.

The boxes will not be subsidised by Sky, unlike those for its subscription satellite service, and manufacturers will be able to develop their own variations on equipment.

Sky is still waiting for Ofcom to launch a further consultation stage on its Picnic plans, which the regulator has linked to a wider review of the pay TV market.

Under original plans released in the autumn Sky's existing digital terrestrial channels - including Sky News and Sky Three - would be removed from Freeview. Instead, it would broadcast three MPEG-2 streams carrying Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One, a children's channel and a factual channel, at different times of the day. Sky also sought permission to move to the MPEG-4 compression standard, allowing it to add a 24-hour Sky News stream to Picnic.

However, in April it was rumoured that Sky was considering employing IPTV as an alternative way to deliver content.