ITV's broadband portal to go live in March

4 January 2007 18:06 GMT / By Amber Maitland

ITV today released details about its planned broadband portal, which will offer free content streamed via PC.

The portal will go live in March, and will feature most of ITV's programming from its four channels for free.

This separates it from Channel 4's recently-launched on-demand service, 4od, which charges 99p to view catch-up programming; however, some sporting events and “unique” programmes will incur a charge.

Unlike BT Vision and 4od, ITV's broadband offering will be ad-funded.

It's not clear if programmes will be available for downloading, or if they'll simply be streamed to the PC.

ITV has appointed Annelies van den Belt, previously Director of New Media at the Telegraph Media Group, as Managing Director of the broadband team.

“Plans for our broadband portal are ambitious and well advanced. Bringing on board an industry leader like Annelies is a hugely significant step”, said Jeff Henry, Director of ITV Consumer.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Video on demand, ITV, Channel 4, YouTube, MySpace