Sky News, one of the UK's most popular news services, has made its TV output available to web-based viewers for free at news.sky.com.
The service, powered by the Microsoft Silverlight-based Sky Player, had previously been available only to Sky subscribers, but is now openly accessible to anyone in the UK or ROI.
Promising high bit-rate video quality, Sky News will air online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The introduction of the free web-based service comes as a surprise as Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation - which owns the majority of BSkyB - had recently stated that the company intends to charge for all news websites.
Commenting on today's announcement, Julian March, senior executive producer for Sky News online said "we're delighted to showcase the great quality of Sky Player, and to give non-Sky customers access to just one of the many channels available to subscribers."
In addition to its online expansion, BSkyB plans to introduce a HD variant of its Sky News channel in Spring 2010.
