Freeview Playback renamed Freeview+

Freeview is capitalising on the "plus" identity created by Sky and already further used by Virgin Media by renaming its digital video recorder brand Freeview+.

The company said it would be making "increased marketing efforts" to push the products, previously known as Freeview Playback, as the new name is rolled out in coming months.

"The Freeview+ range will be the most comprehensive in the market, including basic boxes, DVD recorders, DVD and VHS combination recorders and TVs with Freeview+ built in," a Freeview representative explained. "It will also feature a greater number of products from a range of brands including Humax, Goodmans, LG, Sony and Sharp and Tvonics."

As well as the "plus" branding, Freeview is looking to profit from the fact that some people are still using VHS recorders which will not work after digital switchover.

"There’s over one third of a million Freeview digital TV recorders in households – and that’s been achieved with relatively little marketing support," said marketing and communications director Rob Farmer.

"We are now upping our efforts and since ‘+’ has entered the vernacular in recent years, we think it makes sense to reposition ourselves to take advantage of that."

The Sky+ personal video recorder was introduced in 2001 and now has 3.39m subscribers while Virgin's product, renamed V+ from TV Drive upon its rebranding from NTL Telewest, has about 365,000.