BT is hoping to get a deal with the BBC backed Freeview digital TV platform to flog internet access to digital viewers. Set top boxes with internet capability are expected to hit the stores early next year, and BT hopes to forge a deal which will let it sell internet services to Freeview customers. The link up with a digital TV platform is part of BT’s attempts to woo people away from cable phone and internet services – consumers who choose to buy cable TV normally take the cable companies telecoms services too. They hope people may opt for Freeview over cable, and therefore be more open to take BT and an internet provider. And with the internet potential of Freeview better with broadband internet access they hope to sell more broadband lines too.
"BT sees that if people take Freeview then they may not subscribe to cable or maybe they will even leave cable," Andy Blanche, the head of media ventures at BT, told a New Media Markets conference this week.