Five 'cleared for Freesat launch'

Five has resolved rights issues and will announce a Freesat launch date shortly.

Freesat managing director Emma Scott said: "Five are coming on this year and we are hoping for an announcement shortly. They would have liked to have been there at the launch, but it was not possible because of rights issues."

Scott told What Satellite And Digital TV she expected there to be 230 channels on the Freesat EPG by early 2009. "We have got some exciting international and music channels coming up, including one exclusive Freesat channel, and hopefully more HD content," she said.

"It's slightly decided by a timetable set down with Sky, which concerns the uplinking arrangements so we do not interfere with their EPG and they do not interfere with ours. The EPG data is an additional component which is added to the broadcast stream, and they were not able to combine it for all the channels in time for our launch."