British pay-TV company BSkyB has launched a broadband internet access service that it will bundle with its satellite TV offering, taking on competitors including telecommunications giant BT.
The company, 38% owned by Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp, said it anticipated investment of £400m over the next three years in the service. BSkyB also said it expected the service to boost its earnings from 2010.
Sky will offer its British customers free broadband with whatever TV package they take and will throw in a free wireless router which allows users to connect to the internet anywhere in their house without the need for a network of wires.
Some analysts have warned that the company will face expensive outlays in the first several years of its broadband service, due in part to the cost of installing its own equipment in BT's telephone exchanges to gain direct access to homes and businesses, known as local loop unbundling.
Sky's broadband package, which follows its acquisition of internet service provider Easynet last year, comes as media and telecommunications firms invade each other's territories and bundle multiple services to woo consumers and stop them from going elsewhere.
