BT is spending £10m to promote the potential of broadband in what it believes to be the UK's most intensive TV ad campaign ever.

The telecoms giant wants to double the number of people taking up broadband to 24,000 a week in a bid to have 1 million subscribers by next summer.

A 10-day high-profile ad campaign - "Possibilities" - will begin this Sunday, promoting the benefits of high-speed internet access.

It was launched in a fanfare today by Nell McAndrew and Christine Hamilton, fresh from their success on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!.

The UK lags behind its European neighbours with only around 9% of Britons connected to broadband, compared with an estimated 39% in Germany.

BT has focused on increasing its share of the market since its new chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, joined in February.

The group currently has 350,000 broadband users on its network, either through its own product or other internet service providers such as Freeserve.

It will launch a new broadband package, BT Broadband, in October and plans to showcase the product through a tie-up with Carphone Warehouse.

Pierre Danon, the chief executive of BT's retail division, said the group was helping to kickstart the broadband market in the UK.

He added: "The sheer scale of what we are doing should leave no one in any doubt of the seriousness of our intent to put broadband at the heart of BT."

Broadband is up to 10 times faster than traditional internet connections and is "always on", allowing customers to use the phone at the same time.