Its here to stay, it is a test but its not gonna be pulled unless something goes wrong which is unlikely, there are also other things on the way i believe this is why it has been launched early,
There are posts and press releases regarding the fourth comming plans for a BBC+ITV colaboration, ITV and BBC has no interest to keep their channels on Sky, in fact they have to pay sky and Sky charge the customer, a double wammy for Sky.
It makes sense for ITV to go it alone. They spent a few years licking their wounds after ITV digital bombed no thanks to Skys dirty tricks, Sky have also lost their rights to Football recently, ITVs on a roll in the UK at the moment 4 new channels in the last 18 months, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and Men and Motors and ive heard rumours Channel four is following suite soon they just launched anothe channel More4 as well as making E4 and E4+ FTA on freeview Top up TV also has been launched in the UK offering a selection of the The UK TV suite, UK Gold etc including Cartoon Network this too was not exspected to last long but i hear they are expanding the service already. The UK government is upping the anti to get Freeview in every home so they can reach the switch off targets, even subsidising boxes now the knock on effect is the UK broadcaster needs to change the game and Sky isnt part of their plan. Good news for FTA satallite though.