E4 'will be free to air by end of year'

It was perhaps inevitable that E4 would go free-to-air at some point, since Channel 4 has not only lost the rights to show Joey (the Friends spin-off) but there is now an increased emphasis being placed on public service broadcasting at C4 HQ. Obviously a lack of premium programming combined with a realisation that Channel 4 needs a stronger "public service image" was the clincher in this particular case.

E4 was a cornerstone in the Top Up TV portfolio of part time channels, though it's likely that it will just be substituted with another channel (UKTV Documentary at a guess if Sky One still isn't available) with minimal change to the venture's long term viability. And although E4 is only one channel on the SkyDigital platform, it was a moderately significant component of Sky's subscription packages therefore SkyDigital's 'loss' is Freeview's 'gain'.

Combine E4 with Channel 4's More4 (which will still be launched) and Freeview starts to look an even more serious proposition for people fed up with paying Sky for a 'entertainment' package which apart from sport and movies is slowly starting to look rather lacklustre as a result. And Sky One is still too reliant on imports such as Deadwood to compete properly with channels such as ITV2 and ITV3, let alone the terrestrial channels.

All this makes the prospect of BSkyB wanting to buy Channel Five at some point even more likely, but whether it will be able to do so without attracting the attention of its rivals remains to be seen. But whatever the outcome, a free-to-air E4 will make BSkyB's life just that bit more difficult as a result.