Prime breakthrough for Freeview TV service

Sky Television has upgraded its Prime free-to-air channel on Freeview’s terrestrial service from standard definition to HD.

It has also made the channel available on Freeview’s streaming service for the first time, in HD (high definition).

The latter move will particularly benefit television viewers who do not have a UHF (ultra high frequency) aerial or satellite dish, and who instead watch television online.

Freeview launched a dongle last year partly to cater to such households.

The $139 SmartVU device made by Dish TV offers easy access to most free-to-air channels, as do apps such as Netflix, TVNZ OnDemand, Spark’s Lightbox, YouTube and more recently Spark Sport.

But the fact Prime was not until now available through the device had been a drawback for many who might use it as their main means of watching television.

Sky TV chief executive Martin Stewart said the changes would make Prime more accessible.

‘‘Prime acts as a window into Sky, providing a great selection of some of our premium sport and entertainment content.’’

Despite Sky’s decision to partner with TVNZ for the 2020 Olympics rather than put its freeto-air coverage on Prime, the channel also remained its ‘‘hub for free-to-air sport’’, he said.

More than half of Freeview viewers watched free-to-air through its terrestrial UHF service and for those viewers, Prime would have automatically upgraded to HD, Freeview chief executive Jason Foden said.

Previously, only Sky and Vodafone TV customers would have been able to watch Prime in HD. Freeview’s satellite service provides channels in standard definition because of the current constraints of its satellite connectivity.