Media Guardian reports that Sky plans to offer its DTT service through the Microsoft Media Centre, without a set-top box. This makes good sense.

NDS (the News Corp subsidiary that provides Sky's encryption) and Microsoft have been cooperating for some time, so this is a relatively easy thing for Sky to do.

There are a couple of interesting points here:

The Microsoft Media Centre is really nice: For several years their remote-control driven interface has been as good as the recently launched Apple TV. The difference is that Microsoft provide a documented API for 3rd parties to extend the interface, whereas developers have to hack their way onto an Apple TV. The Microsoft Media Centre is likely to be an important part of the new TV environment.

Sky segment the UK market like nobody else: Mike Darcy, the COO, says the new service will be "catering for the segments of the population for whom it is the PC, and not the TV, that is the natural epicentre of their entertainment world". Presumably that's the homes who will get their entertainment primarily via Internet downloads and off-air recordings from DTT. Sky's opportunity is to sell this group live sports. Sky's ability to identify and deliver a range of offerings for different segments is increasingly impressive.