Hijack in the box

TSK, tsk. What will that naughty Mr Murdoch get up to next? Not content with declaring digital war by giving away free boxes for Sky Digital, he is now offering a card that can hijack your ONdigital box, allowing it to receive SkyDigital without the need for any extra black box at all (although you'll still need the dastardly dish).

Similar in appearance to the PCMCIA-type cards familiar to laptop PC users, the ON-buster, as we should learn to call it, is designed to plug into the Common Interface slot found on the rear of all ONdigital set-top boxes and Integrated Digital TVs.

Once the module has been connected to a satellite dish and a valid SkyDigital smart card has been issued, viewers will be able to access the satellite-delivered digital channels while continuing to receive free-to-air digital terrestrial channels. BSkyB has also developed a second PC card for existing SkyDigital subscribers. This will allow set-top boxes to receive digital terrestrial services as well as those on digital satellite - these include ITV1 and ITV2, neatly sidestepping ITV's refusal to allow BSkyB to carry its digital TV channels. The prototype cards are on show next week at the MediaCast Cable and Satellite Show at Earl's Court, with both modules due to go on sale later this year.

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