Strangely, on the very day that Virgin 1 launches, sly old Sky have announced detailed plans for their own next move on Freeview.

As suspected, Sky are taking their free channels (Sky Three, Sky News, and Sky Sports News) off Freeview, and replacing them with a new pay service called "Picnic", which will initially offer a selection of content from Sky Movies, Sky One, Sky Sports 1, and unspecified children's and factual channels, split across the three 24 hour streams in Sky's possession. In time, Sky hope that Ofcom will allow them to switch to the more efficient MPEG4 video standard, which will allow them to add a fourth channel - but this will only be supported by new, MPEG4 compatible boxes. A broadband and phone package will also be included in Picnic subscriptions.

These MPEG4 boxes will be marketed under the Picnic brand by various manufacturers, starting with Sagem - but Sky is quite clear that the boxes won't be subsidised, and will be sold through the normal retail channels alongside (presumably cheaper) standard Freeview boxes - without any subscription commitment. They're also not being built to any particular set of specifications, aside from the MPEG4 compatibility, so no propietary Sky EPG, etc. This should allay some fears (my own included) that Sky are attempting to retrospectively re-engineer and brand Freeview in their own image.

There's no launch date for any of this (or for the removal of the existing channels) as the whole thing is subject to an Ofcom review that's unlikely to finish this side of Christmas - but the publicity drive indicates they're quite confident of approval, as well as helping to spoil Virgin 1's launch. More from the evil horse's mouth here.