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Free-to-air satellite TV service Freesat has switched its PR support as it looks to take on pay-TV giant BSkyB.


Freesat: an alternative to paid-for digital TV
The three-year-old company, which passed two million customers this month, claims almost half of its new customers in 2011 have switched from Sky.

Freesat has appointed Pagefield to handle its corporate and consumer comms after splitting with one-year incumbent Consolidated PR.

The switch coincides with a change in comms strategy as the TV service looks to focus on its own brand presence among consumers.

Pagefield’s media practice head Oliver Foster said: ‘Now that everyone has been educated about the digital switchover, and Freesat was central to that, the company wants to be seen as a genuine alternative to paid-for services from Sky, Virgin Media and BT Vision.’

Pagefield will help drive consumer sales and target corporate journalists to put Freesat at the heart of the digital TV debate.

Foster added: ‘In these economically worrying times consumers are not willing to pay expensive subscriptions and that is why Freesat is exp-eriencing such huge growth.’

Foster will lead the account along with chief of staff Sara Price.

Freesat claims it is the fastest-growing UK TV platform after 88,000 new homes took up the service during the second quarter of 2011 – more than twice the number that signed to Sky over that period.

Freesat is a joint venture between ITV and the BBC and was set up to offer homes in the UK a digital service before the switchover. It offers customers more than 150 digital TV and radio services with no monthly subscription.

Analogue TV in the UK will cease on 26 September 2012.

Freesat previously worked with Firefly on its prelaunch comms and Borkowski PR (now Beige) was hired in 2008 to target trade, specialist and online media.