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Sky Anytime+ achieves impossible, will carry iPlayer (and ITV Player)

Sky's burgeoning Anytime+ VOD platform is getting a hefty boost today. It was previously open only to customers who also hitched to Sky Broadband, but that restriction's being gently relaxed: opening it up to all five million Sky+HD box owners. It's also somehow sweet-talked deadly rivals BBC and ITV into letting their offerings onto the platform -- with ITV Player arriving tomorrow and iPlayer slated for arrival later in the year. Head past the break for the official line while we sit here and grumble about the company buying up all the UK rights to Mad Men and charging a kings ransom.

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Sky Anytime+ goes from strength to strength with more content and increased reach

BC iPlayer and ITV Player to join the service.
Sky Anytime+ available to more than 5 million homes at no extra cost by Easter 2012.

Sky has today announced a series of enhancements to its video on demand service, Sky Anytime+, which will expand the choice of programmes available for customers and make it available to millions of homes for the first time. The move follows strong growth for Sky Anytime+, which is already in more than a million Sky homes and has seen weekly usage increase by 80% in the three months to 31 December 2011.

The enhancements form part of Sky's commitment to bring more value to customers through their subscription. Sky Anytime+ comes at no extra charge and already provides access to a wide range of on-demand content including movies, entertainment, documentaries and drama 'box sets'. In addition to programmes from Sky's own channels, it offers access to content from partner channels such as MTV, Discovery, FX, History, Disney, UK TV and National Geographic Channel.

To expand the range of high-quality content available on Sky Anytime+, Sky has reached new agreements with the BBC and ITV.

This means that ITV archive content, including popular shows such as Prime Suspect, Lewis and Cold Feet, will join the service from tomorrow, accessible through the main Sky Anytime+ menu as well as a new dedicated ITV Player section. And later this year, customers will be able to use Sky Anytime+ to catch up on programmes from both the BBC and ITV when the BBC iPlayer joins the service and more programming is added to ITV Player.

Archive BBC content - including the likes of Doctor Who, Outnumbered and Top Gear - is already available on Sky Anytime+ through Sky's existing deal with UK TV.

And to help even more customers enjoy the service, Sky is extending the reach of Sky Anytime+ by making it available to all Sky+HD homes with an internet connection, across all broadband providers. This means more than 5 million homes will soon be able to access the comprehensive video on demand service. The extension of the service builds on the
1.2 million Sky Broadband homes that already use the service.