Multiplus are the first digital terrestrial television (DTT) network in the world to have signed an agreement to broadcast BBC Prime. Wayne Dunsford, director of channels at BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, said thanks to Multiplus, now that the BBC had secured the rights for the DDT transmission, it can look to secure similar deals in other markets, primarily in Europe where DTT has taken hold.

Multiplus chief executive officer Jan Spiteri told The Sunday Times that he had approached the BBC over a year ago to enquire whether it could transmit BBC Prime. BBC World was available worldwide but the only reason BBC Prime was unavailable was because the rights had not yet been acquired.

"The BBC was mindful of the situation and they agreed to get moving to clear the rights," he said. Mr Dunsford, who was accompanied on a flying visit to Malta by Susanne Gallaher, director of channels, who is responsible for sales and distribution in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, confirmed Multiplus's tenacity and perseverance:

"We are very grateful to Multiplus for giving us the impetus to secure those rights so that we can indeed follow on from this very important deal and secure DTT deals in other markets.

"My only hope is that other DTT operators in Europe are as efficient and professional as Multiplus have been in their negotiations with us."

BBC Prime is a 24-hour international general entertainment subscription only channel. It was launched in 1995 in Europe - 10 years ago this year and now broadcasts also to Africa, the Middle East, and since last December to Asia, including Japan.

It had two million subscribers at launch and now has over 22 million worldwide. "BBC Prime is different to other channels," Mr Dunsford said. "The BBC brand is a benefit to awareness but to subscribers it offers something different to other programmes.

"In many markets it is the Britishness of the channel that is its main selling point. This was the main reason why it was launched in Israel, the Middle East, and Asia, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Korea. Taiwan and the Philippines are next."

Many of the countries have a historical association with Britain and welcome a general entertainment channel from the BBC, he said. "The challenge is to go beyond the expatriate community, who are familiar with the programme content, and reach the local population.

"The past 10 years have been about growing the business through distribution and revenues. Going forward, it is going to be about growing the business through new media like DTT and mobile forms of distribution. This is why the Multiplus deal is so important, since for BBC Prime it is the first DTT deal in the world."

Dr Spiteri said BBC Prime represents an important addition to the Multiplus channel line-up (it can be viewed on channel 301). "We have included the channel in the Silver + package at no extra cost. The addition of this channel gives us a much more complete package and (it) now represents a high quality package of channels at extremely good value."

Mr Dunsford said: We have a long history of being in Malta through our relationship with Melita Cable. I am delighted that, having been in this market for so long, Multiplus recognised it was important to have BBC Prime on its platform and we can now expand the business through this deal."

In answer to questions from the floor, he said: "The relationship with Melita will continue. I am looking forward to us having as much distribution as possible on as many platforms as possible."

Looking at the programming, Mr Dunsford said: "We have an 18-hour core schedule made up of general entertainment programming (and) an overnight block of educational programming, which we brand as BBC Learning. We have over 2,500 hours of new programming every year and, for a cable, satellite and now DTT channel - compared to other similar channels - we have a low repeat pattern. Seventy per cent of our programmes are fairly recent - a maximum of two years old."

The core genres are drama, comedy, entertainment and music. There are also documentaries, natural history and lifestyle. All the programming is from the BBC, although the channel is now acquiring some programmes from other British broadcasters "which we believe will fit the editorial philosophy of the channel but add to its make-up in terms of the consumer".

Among the latest programmes are documentaries on the Royal Family, Christmas specials, a sci-fi drama called The Lost World, and a number of documentaries.

In 2006 there is the Little Britain comedy series, The Kumars at No. 42 on an Asian chat show host who is not very good at what he does and classic series like As time goes by and drama - Cutting it about the hairdressing industry, the detective series Dalziel & Pascoe and live coverage of the BAFTA Awards in February.

Among the services also offered are: teletext; the overnight educational service, which has a lot of programming about language learning; a dedicated consumer Website at www.bbcprime.com, which gives instant access to schedules, upcoming highlights, competitions and personalisation of the site - over the past year, it has had 16 million hits; and a partner Website with programme information and photos for promotional purposes.

Asked for subscriber reaction to the addition of the channel, Dr Spiteri said: "We have people who subscribed because they have been waiting for BBC Prime and we have a lot of subscribers who phoned up and said thanks for the great addition.

"We will be adding more channels but this channel makes the Silver + package much more complete. All the channels are very good, making it good value."

Multiplus is also developing new channels. "We are licensed for eight frequencies. We are transmitting on five at the moment. We are developing the other three as we speak. We've closed most of them.

"Once we do our tests, we are going to come out with the package. People will realise we are testing because the channels will become available - it's an open network."

Multiplus is hitting its targets on subscriber numbers: "We are very happy with the response we've got from everyone," he said.

Looking to the future of BBC Prime, Mr Dusford said: "Our priority now is to secure rights for mobile distribution. This is not covered by the rights agreements we have in place.

"I see mobile TV more as a cross-promotional tool. We could stream the channel in its entirety or elements of it - classic clips of comedies. In the UK at the moment 3G is not being taken up as rapidly as the manufacturers had hoped. The next 12 months will reveal if there is a business in mobile TV.

"A major question is IP security. There will also be the possibility of scheduling your own viewing. The whole way TV is offered and viewed is going to change fundamentally - but hopefully not in my working lifetime."