Freesat celebrates 3 million sales with YouTube launch

YouTube launches for first time on British free-to-air TV

Freesat today announced it has sold its 3 millionth product, taking gross retail sales to well over £1bn; four years after the service first launched in 2008. Internet phenomenon YouTube are joining the Freesat celebrations and will soon be available on the platform, in a first for free British TV.

Freesat added 55,000 new households in the third quarter of 2012. This is more than Sky (25,000 households) and BT Vision (20,000) combined in the same period.

Emma Scott, Freesat’s Managing Director said: “In just four years we have established ourselves as a real challenger and genuine alternative to pay-TV. In that time we’ve delivered choice and quality, subscription free. Customer choice has driven every stage of our development; not least the launch of our second generation service, , in Q3 of last year. We’re now delighted to add to our already fantastic customer offering with YouTube. They join Freesat at a time of rapid growth for our business and will offer our viewers an exclusive, first view of their latest version – previously unseen on free to air TV in the UK.”

YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community allowing millions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. Access to YouTube will soon be possible from the Freesat platform – the first time the service will be available from a free to air provider in the UK. The version of YouTube that will be launched is built on HTML 5 and will be its very latest iteration offering a TV-optimised, visually stunning and fully interactive viewing experience.

Peter Sherman, Product Marketing Manager for YouTube said, “We’re happy to be working with Freesat so that Freesat users can now access YouTube from the platform. Our creator community is developing quality content that will delight and inspire viewers and we’re pleased to be able to bring it to people in new ways.”

Emma Scott added: “Today’s great news is a testament to our ongoing commitment to delivering genuine viewer choice.”

Freesat will be the first TV platform in the UK to host the HTML 5 version of YouTube. was built on the widely adopted European open standards for hybrid TV; including elements of OIPF and HbbTV and HTML 5 browser technology. Because Freesat were the first UK TV platform to embrace this groundbreaking technology, YouTube were able to bring their own HTML 5 version on to Freesat.

Household totals calculated using Freesat’s internal figures.