The Guardian reports today that BSkyB is to use a significant proportion of the £1bn raised from its recently announced corporate bond issue to fund the acquisition of a broadband service provider, enabling it to offer a triple play package of telephony, broadband access and pay TV.
The article also reports that Sky plans to install its own equipment in local telephone exchanges, giving it a direct line to customers and thereby bypassing BT. Sky's 8 million subscribers currently have to connect their set-top boxes into a phone line in order to receive the fully interactive Sky service.
Sky's plans are likely to be in response to the recent NTL / Telewest merger announcement, which creates a serious competitor to both Sky and BT. To date, triple play access via one supplier has been dominated by the cable companies which are able to access homes directly, without needing to utilise BT's infrastructure.
Homechoice, Easynet and Pipex are named as possible acquisition targets.
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