SES Astra announced today that the public channel ARTE will start broadcasting its German programme in High Definition (HD) on 1 July on the Astra Satellite System. The HD programme will be broadcast from Astra’s prime orbital position 19.2 degrees East and offer high quality content from ARTE in superior picture quality. ARTE will use existing and earlier contracted digital capacity from Astra. The French language version of ARTE HD will be available at a later date.
With this HD broadcast, the number of HD channels distributed on the Astra Satellite System increases to 35.
Technical information for the reception of ARTE HD:
Transponder 1.011 receive parameters: 11361. 75MHz, Horizontal-Polarization, 8PSK, 2/3, 22Msymb/s (DVB-S2).
(Source: SES Astra)
on Jun 27th, 2008 at 10:42
will this be free-to-air clear and available across Europe, or will it be free-to-view encrypted ie no subscription but decoder and/or card required to secure copyright to avoid broadcast rights issues? If it’s home grown HD broadcasts made by inhouse by you for showing (and not bought in material ie films/programming) I wouldn’t have thought rights issues would have mattered, they usually don’t on home produced programmes shown in your own territory via satellite and accessible in the clear.