Irish subscribers to BSkyB's satellite service will be offered a new feature that enables them to freeze live television pictures and record programmes without using a video from next month.
The British satellite firm plans to extend its Sky + service to the Republic, where it has signed up 272,000 digital television users in the past four years, in early May.
The Sky + service is a type of "personal video recorder" which enables users to manage their television viewing more effectively.
Using the system, Sky subscribers will be able to view one satellite channel while recording another and get instant replays of events that have just appeared on television. Users will also be able to program their system to record an entire series of programmes automatically. Sky + should be intelligent enough not to record repeats.
But the most user-friendly aspect of the Sky + system is the ability to freeze live television pictures - for example, when making a phone call or going to the toilet - and then to resume watching the same programme.
The Sky + system enables subscribers to do this by simultaneously recording the programme when requested, and offering to play the remainder of the programme back when requested. If a subscriber wants to catch up with a live broadcast, a simple fast-forward facility is provided.
Sky + works by recording programmes directly onto a hard disk incorporated into a new generation of set-top box, which has been developed by BSkyB and the US company TiVo. The integrated hard disk offers users up to 20 hours recording without the need for any video cassettes.
The new service will cost users a subscription fee of about €15 per month. But they will also have to purchase an upgraded digital set-top box, which costs about 350 in a once-off payment.
The high cost of getting set up to use the Sky + service is likely to prove a major barrier in the Republic as it has in Britain. In the past 18 months, BSkyB has only managed to sell about 65,000 of its Sky + set-top boxes.
BSkyB has said it is set to reach its target of selling 100,000 set-top boxes by the end of June but not all analysts are convinced that personal video recorders will be the next big thing. Many observers of the market for personal video recorders believe the high cost of the hardware - which retails at anything from 350 to 500 - will slow consumer take- up.
In addition, TiVo, the firm which is the pioneer of the recorders and which has a partnership with BSkyB to develop Sky +, closed its British office earlier this year to cut costs.
However, Pace Micro Technology, the British-based set-top box builder, will begin selling its combined digital terrestrial television receiver and personal video recorder next month. This box will enable viewers of the British "freeview" digital terrestrial service to gain similar functionality to the TiVo recorder.
So don't expect to be using video cassettes for too much longer. An integrated hard disk is likely to be incorporated into your next television set-top box.
