Top-Up TV complains to Ofcom over BBC dispute

The BBC has been accused of trying to derail the launch of a new pay television service on Freeview.

Top-Up TV is supposed to launch next month, with some promotional material due to be available on air next week. However, the company, headed by two former BSkyB executives, David Chance and Ian West, has had to put its plans on hold until it resolves a dispute with the BBC.

Top-Up lodged an official complaint with Ofcom, the media regulator, yesterday alleging that the corporation is trying to force it into obscure channel slots that would make it difficult for viewers to find the service on the digital terrestrial platform. Top-Up accused the corporation - one of the three companies that run the Freeview platform - of obstruction and delaying tactics. Ian West said the BBC wanted to ensure that there was no-pay mechanism available on Freeview in an attempt to protect its licence fee funding. "There is an unwritten view at the BBC that they want to make sure there's at least one free digital platform out there," Mr West said.

Top-Up will offer 10 channels in Freeview homes for £7.99 per month, including E4 and Discovery. Viewers will also be able to subscribe separately to Television X, a pornographic station run by Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell empire.

Freeview, which succeeded the defunct pay-service ITV Digital, offers around 25 free-to-air channels, including BBC4 and ITV2. Initially, Top-Up will only be available to households with an old ITV Digital decoder box.

Mr West said that, unlike other partners in the Freeview "industry group", the corporation wanted all Top-Up's channels put in slots after channel 30, despite there being other vacant positions available - such as slot 14, which was occupied by E4 in ITV Digital days. He said there should be a mix of pay and free channels available to viewers as they work through the Freeview station line-up.

A spokesman for the BBC said the corporation welcomed new services that would encourage the adoption of digital television. But he added that the BBC wanted to make sure that viewers were not "confused" between pay and free channels. "Freeview is successful because it is easy to understand.... if all the channels were mixed in together, it would be confusing," the spokesman said.