Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer joins TalkTalk board

The Sony chairman, Sir Howard Stringer, has joined the board of TalkTalk, the company announced on Thursday as it unveiled plans to compete with BSkyB, Virgin Media and BT for television customers. TalkTalk is Stringer's only UK directorship and marks a return for one of country's most successful international executives. It coincides with the departure of the Carphone Warehouse boss, Roger Taylor, from the TalkTalk board. Taylor is leaving after overseeing the demerger of the two companies, a process that helped earn him a £34m pay package this year, and as TalkTalk prepares to launch of its first widely available TV service. The cornerstone of that venture is the YouView box, which TalkTalk will give away to its 1.1 million top-tier customers, along with a year's subscription to the LoveFilm online video rental service, unlimited calls and broadband downloads. The box costs £299 in the shops but will come as part of a £14.50-a-month bundle with phone and broadband, on top of £9.50-a-month line rental. It will only be available to those with internet speeds of three megabits a second or higher. TalkTalk chief executive Dido Harding claimed it to be "the UK's best value triple-play package", adding: "It will give our customers more reasons to stay with us for longer and attract new broadband customers. This is TalkTalk at its disruptive best." It lost 19,000 customers during its first financial quarter this year, but said it had returned to customer growth in June, ending a long spell of decline as the company digested a series of mergers. Revenues fell 2% year on year to £414m and by £7m on the previous quarter. Harding reiterated that the company would return to revenue growth in 2013. The TV service would provide a "natural upgrade path" for many of the 7.5 million Freeview customers, and would be rolled out to the vast majority of TalkTalk's 4 million customers over time. In an attempt to lure more cost-conscious customers into paying for television, TalkTalk has negotiated a deal with Sky to offer all of its sports channels and Sky Movies on a flexible basis. Unlike most pay-TV packages, customers can subscribe to one channel for a month at a time, rather than having to buy basic channels as a part of the bundle. The YouView box, created in partnership with BT and the public service broadcasters, includes a digital video recorder, an archive of classic British TV shows, a seven-day TV catchup service and a selection of Hollywood films and US television series, such as Lost and Desperate Housewives, to rent on a pay-per-view basis. Stringer, who stepped down as chief executive of Sony in February, said he was "delighted to be joining the board of such an entrepreneurial and innovative company".