UK cable TV giant Telewest have officially announced that they have launched their high-definition TV (HDTV) service.

HD programmes are available via Telewest’s Teleport on-demand service, which allows people to view and record programmes via their Telewest TV Drive (which works in a similar way to Sky+ and Freeview hard drive recorders, just in HD). The BBC are offering free programmes in the new high-definition format, which uses about four times as many pixels as a normal UK TV signal, and on-demand movies are soon to be added to the list of available HD broadcasts.

The TV Drive service will cost £10/month with Telewest’s top digital channel pack, or £15/month otherwise, so it seems to be roughly equivalent in how it is charged to services such as Sky+.