Thematic audio service Music Choice will shortly add extra functionality to its digital satellite service.

For Sky Digital from this June it will have in place extra interactivity, according to CEO Simon Bazalgette. “The aim is to have these services in place this year, probably in two phases, with interactive in place this summer and [on-screen] transactions following very rapidly,” said Bazalgette. “We see these happening on Sky Interactive.”

Similar services will be available to cable operators. “As far as cable is concerned we would like these digital services to be concurrent with Sky, but it all rather depends on cable, and we have yet to sign these deals,” said Bazalgette. “People have to understand that this isn’t just an audio service, but in a real way straddles both broadcast and interactive, and some cable operators are struggling with that concept. It is a hybrid, and makes sense in both worlds and we certainly don’t want to be hidden away in a list of interactive services. We think the broadcast side of Music Choice makes us a mass-market proposition.”

Phase one, this June, will see Music Choice add “extra data, discographies, music news and the like, and we will be offering some different music content partnerships brought into our own service. We will be getting deeper into our shareholders’ catalogues but first we need to get the transactional side of the service in place. For example once we can sell physical CDs then it is easy to get into virtual CDs,” he added.

Showing album covers on screen has always been part of Music Choice’s brief. This will happen said Bazalgette. Music Choice is also expanding into other delivery methods, not least WAP-based telephony. Bazalgette said his shareholders (BSkyB, Sony, Warner Music and EMI) were happy to continue funding further investment in Music Choice in order to gain a foothold in wireless technologies: “A lot of people are beginning to put together new mobile portals, starting with WAP and starting to move into 2.5 generation and third- generation cellular, although one wonders who will have any money left for 3G telephony. One way they are hoping to get their money back is through music, and the stuff we do. The discussions we are having proves that case. In the WAP world, channel streaming is an expensive proposition and less than technically satisfactory, and we have asked: should we simply wait for everything to work perfectly, or should we get involved now, and start to learn and build the partnerships? And this is our policy.”