Klick - TELE-satellite International Magazine

NEWS
E U R O P E
E U R O P E
HDTV Programmes
Edited by
Branislav Pekic
EUTELSAT GROWTH DUE TO HD SERVICES
Eutelsat has released it figures for the first
quarter of the year which showed that revenues
grew by 11.6% to €226.7 million. The
growth in demand for HD services is being
heralded as one of the reasons. Currently
Eutelsat carry around 3,329 channels and
those being broadcast in HD have risen by a
massive sixty per cent to over one hundred.
Eutelsat now carry around 40% of all HD channels
in Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
GERMANY
SKY GERMANY TO LAUNCH 4
HDTV CHANNELS IN 2010
Sky Deutschland is planning to launch 4
high-definition channels in mid-2010, after
signing a capacity licensing deal with SES
Astra. The German DTH operator already
offers seven HD channels, namely Discovery
HD, History HD, National Geographic
HD, Sky Cinema HD, Disney Cinemagic
HD, Sky Sport HD and Eurosport HD. A
PRIVATE BROADCASTERS
LAUNCH HD+ SERVICE
HD Plus launched its HDTV service, HD+,
in November 2009. The service includes HD
programmes of broadcasters RTL, VOX, Sat.1,
ProSieben and Kabel Eins. TV viewers can use
HD+ for one year free of charge by purchasing
a HD+ satellite receiver. After the first year,
viewers can recharge the HD+ card for €50. Six
models of HD+ receivers have been launched
by Humax, Technisat, Technotrend Görler and
Videoweb. In addition, HD Plus is supporting
modules for receivers using the CI Plus standard.
SKY DEUTSCHLAND LAUNCHES
HDTV PROMOTION
Sky Deutschland is offering consumers a HD TV
Starter box for €199, which includes the HD set
top box and a pre paid HD TV subscription. There
are two different types of starter pack, the DTH
satellite reception version and one that can be
used in conjunction with a cable TV connection.
The packages include a subscription to all twenty
one channels from Sky Welt and Sky Welt Extra,
with a further eighteen channels for satellite TV
users. There are seven HD channels covering
film and sport within the channels offered.
PORTUGAL
CLIX TV BOOSTS HD CONTENT
Clix has expanded its HD offering with live coverage
of the Champions League in HD provided
by RTP1 HD, the new public channel which
broadcasts the games of most of major European
clubs. This new option adds to the existing wide
range of choices in high definition: Arte HD, Bebe
TV HD, Disney Cinemagic HD, Luxe TV HD,
National Geographic Channel HD, Sport TV HD.
UNITED KINGDOM
BSKYB WITH 1.6 MILLION
HDTV SUBSCRIBERS
BSkyB gained 94,000 new customers in
the first quarter of 2009 and now reaches
9.54 million households. It also signed up
287,000 customers to Sky+ HD – a threefold
increase on the previous year – to now
reach a total of 1.6 million households.
TISCALI LAUNCHES HDTV
Tiscali customers with a Tiscali+ set-top box can
receive HD movies from December 2009 on a
pay-per-view basis. New HD releases will cost
£4.95 (compared to £3.99 in SD) and older HD
releases will cost £2.99 (compared to £1.99).
BBC CRITICISED OVER POOR
HD PICTURE QUALITY
The BBC’s HDTV service has lost its sharp
pictures, after the broadcaster lowered the
bitrate of its HD encoding technology from
16 to 9.7 MB. Protests began in August 2009
after the BBC changed its encoding system,
leading to claims that its HD service, available
on the Freesat platform, was little better
than normal television. The BBC’s main commercial
rival Sky transmits HD programmes
at a bitrate of between 1MB and 15MB.
FREEVIEW BEGINS HD TESTS
Freeview launched HD broadcasts in the UK
although no HD set top boxes were available on
the market on launch date. The reason being
is that the broadcasts are in fact tests for the
Freeview HD service taking place in London
and Manchester but these transmitters already
cover around 20% of the UK population. The
HD switch-on makes the UK the only country in
the world to operate to the DVB T2 standard.
N O R T H A M E R I C A
CANADA
SHAW DIRECT OFFERS 58 HD CHANNELS
Following the launch of the History HD channel in
November, Shaw Direct now offers a total of 58
High Definition (HD) channels. History Television
HD is part of Shaw Direct’s HD Extra package,
featuring AMC HD, A&E HD, Discovery HD and
more, for as little as CAD 4.99 per month.
ROGERS ADDS 13 HDTV CHANNELS
Rogers Communications in December added 13
new high definition channels to its HD content
line-up, bringing the Rogers offering to more
than 100 channels and hundreds of hours of
HD content On Demand. The new HD channels
are: Global BC HD, History Television HD,
TCM - Turner Classic Movies HD, KTLA HD,
WPIX HD, WSBK HD, MEXCESS HD, MFUN!
HD, CBS COLLEGE SPORTS HD, WOW
HD, TV5 HD, TFO HD and Fireplace HD.
BELL TV DROPPING SD
SATELLITE RECEIVERS
Bell TV has informed its dealers that it will no
longer sell or rent its 3150 and 5900 standard
definition (SD) satellite receivers. Once the
current inventory of the two models is gone, Bell
will replace these models with high definition
(HD) satellite receivers – 6131 and 9241 High
HD PVR. Both will feature MPEG-4 capability,
the ability to add an external hard disk
drive and HDMI connectivity. The transition to
MPEG-4 by ExpressVu has not been confirmed
and is not expected for several years.
MATANUSKA SELECTS AMINO
FOR HD ROLLOUT
118 TELE-satellite — Global Digital TV Magazine — 02-03/2010 — www.TELE-satellite.com
Matanuska Telephone Association will buy HD
set-top boxes from Amino Communications for
its HDTV rollout. MTA, which serves the Palmer,
Eagle River and Wasilla areas, is acquiring
Amino’s A130 set-top box, which handles a single
MPEG-4 HD stream, and its A530 HD DVR box.
MTA has about 8,000 IPTV subscribers and its
HD channel line-up currently consists of about
24 broadcast-TV and basic-cable services.
UNITED STATES
BRIGHT HOUSE OFFERS
100 HD CHANNELS
Bright House Networks has reached the goal
of having 100 high-definition channels by the
end of 2009. The total of 103 HD channels does
include HD Movies on Demand, a pay per view
channel. In doing so it fulfils the ambitious goal
it set in December 2008 when it only offered 37
channels in HD. It will also make Bright House
more competitive with AT&T U-verse, and
satellite providers DISH Network and DirecTV,
which all offer more than 100 HD channels.
A S I A & P A C I F I C
CHINA
COGO TO BENEFIT FROM
CHINA’S HDTV PLANS
Cogo Group expects to benefit from China’s
plan to migrate to HDTV over the next three
years. Cogo has already secured design wins
to provide HD solutions to three top-tier set-top
box manufacturers with scheduled shipments
beginning in 2010. Additionally, Cogo is targeting
an additional 20 STB vendors with its solution
next year. At the end of September 2009, the
Chinese government announced that nine channels
would begin offering HD transmissions.
Various industry sources have estimated that
total HD STB sales will reach 30-50 million subscribers
over the next three years, from a very
limited number today. Currently, Beijing Gehua,
Shanghai Cable, and Shenzhen CATV are key
cable operators aggressively rolling out HDTV;
however, over 100 cable operators will ultimately
deliver HDTV in China over the next few years.
MALAYSIA
ASTRO LAUNCHES HDTV BROADCASTS
Astro All Asia Networks launched HDTV
in Malaysia in December 2009. The DTH
operator is available to some 2.875 million
residential subscribers. The roll out of
HDTV services is estimated to cost some
200 million Ringgits, including marketing and
operating costs of approximately 150 million
Ringgit, over the next financial year.
W O R L D
AFN TO SWITCH TO HIGH DEFINITION
American Forces Network decoders will soon go
high definition and follows the recent conversion
from analogue TV to digital TV in the USA.
Production of the older Cisco model D9835
satellite receiver/decoder was recently discontinued
by the manufacturer to make way for the
high-definition D9865 which will cost US$ 379.
AFN has funding to switch over to high definition
in fiscal 2012. The switch to digital and high
definition is a lengthy and complicated process
and involves replacing nearly 150,000 standarddefinition-only
receiver/decoders worldwide.