Carphone Warehouse to buy Tiscali and introduce HD TV

Tiscali EPG

The deal, expected to be finalised by the end of June, will create the UK's largest home broadband provider with 4.25m subscribers.

Tiscali had previously been in talks with BSkyB, but negotations broke down earlier this year.

Our man on the spot wasn't there for the financial news, however. He'd been invited in for a sneak preview of Tiscali TV's new electronic programme guide (EPG), which is about to be rolled out.

The revamped interface has been designed in 16:9 to take advantage of flat panel displays, features more-intuitive browse and search tools, and has an icon-based front-end rather than the old list-style layout of yore.

The company also says that 1080i HD content is on the way too. The new interface goes live on May 25.