Nevada tele.com, a Belfast-based telecoms and internet firm, has clinched a lucrative deal with BSkyB which will enable Sky's digital television customers in the Republic to use interactive services.
The deal means subscribers will be able to access new services such as e-mail, games, betting, voting and interactive advertising from their TV screens for the first time.
It represents another significant move by Sky in the Irish market following news that it had signed up 193,000 subscribers and signed a carriage deal with RTÉ.
The cable operators NTL and Chorus have not completed the roll-out of new digital infrastructure which would enable them to offer similar interactive services.
Nevada tele.com clinched the deal with BSkyB despite strong competition from Eircom, which had been in talks with Sky for several months during 2001.
The firm will provide the telecoms services required to enable Sky's subscribers to go online via a set-top box, which will be connected to a standard fixed-line home telephone line.
Although Eircom did not reach a deal with Sky, it will still receive a share of the revenue from Sky customers who use Eircom's fixed-line telecoms service.
Nevada will also gain a share of each transaction cost as all transactions will be routed via its network. Sky will get the remainder of a transaction cost.
Mr Jim Egan, interactive business development manager for Sky, said the cost of each service would as far as possible be the same for Irish customers as it was for subscribers in Britain.
Such customers pay 25 pence sterling (40.39 cents) to register a vote on its Sky news channel. Other services such as gaming and e-mail vary in price depending on the amount of time a subscriber spends connected to the internet.
Mr Egan said Sky would launch its interactive services within the first half of 2002 after the "nitty gritty technical work" with Nevada had been completed.
He said Sky had spoken to a range of telecoms providers about the deal but decided on Nevada because of the strength of the terms it was offering.
A spokesman for Sky said the company was actively investigating extending online interactive content to include home shopping, banking and financial services.
