The BBC struck a deal to stay at the top of Sky's programme guide

Patricia Hodgson, chief executive of the Independent Television Commission, said the BBC's switch from a BSkyB satellite was a landmark move, according to a report.

Viewers will shortly no longer need a Sky viewing card to receive BBC channels via satellite, and Ms Hodgson predicted other channels could follow suit, the Guardian reported.

The BBC's break from BSkyB was "the most extraordinary development since the start of cable and satellite broadcasting," she said.

If more broadcasters followed the BBC's lead, retailers could start selling satellite dishes without a subscription to pick up the free channels, the paper said.

A similar system on digital terrestrial broadcasting, Freeview, lets viewers pay a one of fee as low as �60 to receive up to 30 channels.

Unexpected change

It has proved a hit, with boxes in an estimated 1.6 million homes, and particularly appealing to older viewers.

"I would imagine that within two to three years you'll have a BBC electronic programme guide as part of a combined Freeview and 'freesat' service," Ms Hodgson said, according to the Guardian.

"That is going to change the broadcasting ecology in a way which nobody anticipated."

At the end of May, the BBC announced it was to move off the Sky satellite in July and begin broadcasting an unencrypted signal.