The £150 will give people a Sky digibox, minidish and an initial viewing card, offering access to 115 television channels, 81 radio stations and 13 different interactive services. Freeview currently offers 26 television channels and 21 radio stations.
Sky's free-to-air satellite package will also allow viewers to participate in interactive TV, such as voting on 'Big Brother', which Freeview users do not currently have access to.
The digibox will be easy to upgrade to receive paid-for services such as Sky One and E4, and contains an integrated modem, giving users access to online services such as email and SMS text messaging.
BSkyB is hoping that over time, users of the free-to-air package will upgrade to become subscribers and says that it will also make money from interactive services. Marketing plans, and even the name for the new package, are being kept under wraps ahead of the launch later this year.
Freeview, in which Sky is a partner along with the BBC and Crown Castle, has been a huge success, with 3.5m households now owning set-top boxes since its launch in October 2002. Viewers can access the service for a one-off payment as low as £40, compared with £150 for the new Sky package.
The launch of the BSkyB free-to-air digital satellite service was welcomed by the BBC.
Andy Duncan, BBC director of marketing, communications and audiences, said: "This is good news for our viewers as it provides another route to all the BBC's digital services without subscription.
"This follows the BBC's own view that free-to-air digital satellite is an important missing piece in the jigsaw to achieving a fully digital Britain."
BSkyB has also unveiled plans for a package of digital television channels delivered in the High Definition Television format. HDTV is a superior quality service and a number of US television productions are now using it as their preferred format. The package will be available here in 2006.
James Murdoch, chief executive of BSkyB, said: "These initiatives are another step in giving consumers a choice from Sky that suits their needs at the top and lower ends of the scale. They will help drive even greater take-up of digital TV services and enable Sky to enjoy a close relationship with even more customers."
Sky's free-to-air satellite package will give viewers access to a number of sports, music, news and shopping channels, as well as the major terrestrial services, all of BBC's digital radio and TV output and several foreign-language channels.
The company said that it would provide an accessible means of going digital for the 27% of households currently unable to receive the full range of digital terrestrial services.
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