The BBC iPlayer will be trialled to a select group of Freesat viewers from 7 December, the corporation has announced.
Participants in the trial will initially require a code to access the BBC iPlayer but the service should be more freely available by Christmas.
The trial is designed to work on Humax
HD set top boxes, currently owned by one in three Freesat viewers.
ITV Player will also launch in beta, or trial form, early in 2010.
Moving the BBC iPlayer from a computer to a TV platform had been a challenge said Rahul Chakkara, head of TV platforms at the BBC.
"The hardware of set top boxes and IPTVs (Internet Protocol Television) is constrained," he told BBC News.
"Set top boxes don't have the same processing power or memory as a typical PC. The software inside the boxes was really made for broadcast."
The BBC iPlayer will continue to roll out across different devices as they become connected to the internet, he said. A broadband connection is essential for the service to work on TV.
Freesat is currently in 750,000 homes in the UK and has experienced considerable growth this year, attracting more new customers than Sky in the past two quarters.
BBC News - BBC iPlayer and ITV Player announce Freesat trials