Sky Soon to Launch Three More HD Channels

Sky will use its Rugby World Cup coverage to promote the launch of two more HD channels.

By Christmas it will have 11 HD channels: eight of its own and three free-to-air networks (TV One, TV2, TV3).

On June 1, ESPN will be the next Sky channel to go HD – but not because of popular demand.

Indeed, ESPN isn’t even among the pay-TV service’s most watched channels.

So why is the basic sports channel being elevated to 1080i ahead of Sky’s more popular SD channels, such as UKTV – especially when three of Sky’s HD channels already cater to sports subscribers?

Because Sky receives more complaints — 10 times as many — about ESPN’s shabby SD feed than the picture quality of any other channel.

From Sky’s perspective, it makes sense to fix this problem by switching to ESPN’s HD feed (which offers essentially the same content) – as frustrating as that is for subscribers who’d rather see the satcaster’s HD capacity used for other formats, like entertainment or documentaries.

But at least Sky will offset this by offering two more HD channels by year’s end.

Sky isn’t commenting on their content but one is likely to be an existing service while the other will be a format new to Sky that it will programme in-house.