MediaTel

ONdigital announced that it is to launch its digital service on 15 November at a press conference this morning, and also unveiled the package deals for its new service.

Spokespeople for ONdigital stressed the element of choice characteristic of the packages on offer, with any six primary channels, chosen by the subscriber, for £7.99 a month (compared to rival BSkyB's offer of £6.99 a month, see Newsline), with the free bonus shopping channel, SHOP!. For £9.99 a month, subscribers get the full range of primary channels.

ONdigital's primary channels will include First Ondigital, UK Gold, UK Style/UK Horizons, UK Play, Sky One, Eurosport, The Cartoon Network, Carlton Kids/ Carlton World, Carlton Select/ Carlton Food Network, Carlton Cinema, Granada Plus/ Granada Men and Motors and Granada Breeze.

ONdigital's premiere channels will include the film channels Sky Premier, Sky Movie Max and Film Four, as well as the sports channels Sky Sports 1 and 3, bringing premier league games to ONdigital customers. The price of the premier channels will be £11 for 1 (per month), £15 for 2 and £18 for 3 Sky premium channels, £5 for MUTV and £6 per month for Film Four.

Steve Grabiner, chief executive at Ondigital commented:"Until now, subscribers to multichannel TV have had to pick from other people's bundles. We've taken a positive approach. We believe the only people who should choose are subscribers. From today there is a choice. With ONdigital people will chose what they want."

The group has also announced that it is to offer a free call out service to customers, guaranteeing a service call within 24 hours to any subscribers having difficulty receiving ONdigital. The offer will cost ONdigital an estimated £30 for each household affected. As well as this, customers will be able to have their postcodes checked to see the quality of the signal they are likely to receive before they buy a set-top box, a digital TV or take out a subscription.

Today also sees the start of the network's press advertising campaign, with TV advertising in the key areas from early November.

After much speculation, the digital TV race really kicks off with this week. With the rather low-key launch of the BBC's digital channel BBC Choice last week (see Newsline), BSkyB, ONdigital's main contender in the market, is set to have its official launch on Thursday.

ONdigital: 0171 819 8000