BSkyB accused of digital dirty tricks

A TELEVISION war breaks out tomorrow when the new service ONdigital launches. It is being seen as a replay of the late-Eighties battle between Rupert Murdoch and the British commercial television establishment.

ONdigital is a terrestrial digital broadcaster offering up to 30 pay and free television channels through a set-top digital decoder from pounds 7.99 a month. Its pounds 10m advertising campaign between now and Christmas will emphasise how there is no need for a dish or cable to receive the service.

It is owned by a consortium led by Granada and Carlton and its target is Sky Digital, Rupert Murdoch's latest attempt to convert the British to pay television beamed from the skies.

Already a war of words has broken out. Competing claims are being tested by advertising regulators, stories of inadequate equipment are being circulated to the City and journalists, and the echoes of Mr Murdoch's victory over the long-defunct "squariel" and BSB even go so far as ONdigital using the same building in Battersea, south-west London, as BSB.

On Thursday, Granada, which was also one of the main backers of BSB, hinted that it thought a report circulating in the City - claiming ONdigital would cover less than 50 per cent of the country when it launches - was part of a Sky dirty tricks operation.

The same day the trade magazine Media Week reported that there are worries about whether ONdigital will have enough set-top boxes to meet demand before Christmas. Precisely the same reports circulated about whether BSB had enough squariels in 1990.In the end it turned out to be true.

The other echo from eight years ago is the recourse to regulators. Last week ITV, whose main shareholders are Carlton and Granada, started running information films about digital television, featuring a satellite dish with a red line through it. BSkyB has complained to the Independent Television Commission about the films and the ITC is investigating.

Likewise, Sky has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about ONdigital's poster advertising campaign. It is challenging the assertion that consumers will not need a new ariel to receive the ONdigital signal.

"This is exactly what we did in the Eighties," says a journalist who once ran Sky's dirty tricks department. "It was a huge contest. We complained to the ASA and the IBA about BSB's supposed launch dates, its technology claims, its picture claims, everything.

"Then BSB put out a document titled `Raising Cain' with a very malevolent picture of Rupert Murdoch on the front designed to frighten people. We responded by publishing something called `Freedom in Broadcasting: For or Against?' "

Tales of phone tapping and skulduggery also circulated at the time, but in fact the bugging did not start until BSB, beset by huge launch costs and low subscriptions, merged with Sky. Then bugs were used as the two rival teams of management tried to dispose of each other.

This time around Sky claims it is not interested in smear tactics: "It is a very different situation," says Tim Allan, the company's spokesman. "Then BSB and Sky had a very similar proposition. This time there is a very different method of delivery and very different services on offer. We are looking forward to ONdigital launching because now they have to deal with the consumer going into shops and making a choice."

On the record, ONdigital claims not to be interested in Sky and says it wants to widen the market, not poach subscribers. However, off the record its spin doctors are willing to claim that disinformation about its coverage is being created by a company that has Sky as its biggest client. They will also whisper about the 30 per cent of homes in blocks of flats and listed buildings that haveno access to satellite.

In the last such battle the dirty tricks mattered less than Mr Murdoch's ownership of newspapers that could be filled with support for Sky. And that is the same this time, too.

t A second senior government adviser has joined a company partly owned by Mr Murdoch. Julian Eccles, special adviser to Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, is to become head of corporate communications for Open, the home shopping and banking television service in which BSkyB holds a 32.5 per cent stake.

Mr Allan, former press secretary to the Prime Minister, joined BSkyB in May.