Telewest's trial service provides broadband internet users with free, high-quality TV content using Narrowstep's TelVOS platform ( Television Operating System). The platform provides scheduled, 24 x 7, archive, highlights, video on demand and the ability to broadcast live events via four channels which play out around the clock like traditional TV channels.

Aggregating content from providers such as Flextech Television, high.tv – Narrowstep's flagship extreme sports channel and The Horror Channel, blueyonder tv streams a mix of entertainment, factual, lifestyle and sport-based programming around the clock.

The beta service can be found at www.blueyonder.co.uk/tv and currently includes:

• blueyonder 01 offers a mix of entertainment highlights from Flextech Television's LIVINGtv, Bravo, Challenge and Trouble channels
• broadsports provides a range of specialist sports coverage, from snowboarding to motor racing and sailing
• broadwise offers exclusive video guides to the world wide web, covering topics including online entertainment, multi-player gaming, education and wireless technology
• broadway has a range of entertainment programming

Iolo Jones, chief executive officer of Narrowstep, added: "The marriage of Telewest Broadband's unmetered broadband services with Narrowstep technology shows the future for web television . With 24 x 7 scheduled programmes and one-to-one advertising delivery, blueyonder tv has the impact of television and the accountability of the internet. It's hardly a surprise that advertisers are so excited at the potential of this unique service."

Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest Broadband, said: "Not only are we developing on-demand services for our digital TV platform, but we're also able to exploit the potential for video content via the internet. "Only recently has increasing broadband connection speeds and improvements in encoding technology allowed the continuous streaming of such high quality video."

Telewest Broadband has over 750,000 broadband internet customers, two-thirds of whom take services of 1Mb and above, so the company sees blueyonder tv as one way to bring the benefits of that extra bandwidth to life. The trial currently has around 25,000 regular users.

Content is played out at speeds of up to 1.8Mbp/s and the service will automatically tailor the speed of delivery to each viewer's broadband connection. Viewing can be paused and a three-day programme guide provides an on-demand option, allowing users to select content from anywhere in the schedule.

Telewest Broadband expects the range and depth of content on blueyonder tv to expand over the coming months and viewers are being asked to give feedback during the ongoing trial.