Sky Deutschland adds HD transponder on Astra 19.2 East

Sky D adds HD transponder on Astra

By Robert Briel
March 6, 2012 07.53 Europe/London

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Sky Deutschland has contracted an additional transponder on the Astra satellite system at 19.2 degrees East, effective from June 1.

The pay-TV operator will use the transponder for the transmission of additional HD programming. Including the new capacity, Sky Deutschland will be using 11 transponders on the Astra satellites.

Wolfgang Elsässer, managing director of Astra in Germany, said: “Sky Deutschland has been a pioneer in HD in Germany and we are very pleased to further extend our partnership with them. We currently broadcast 39 German-speaking HD channels on ASTRA, and we expect to increase this to more than 50 by the end of this year.

“The German public broadcasters have announced plans to launch ten HD channels in May 2012; furthermore, Super RTL has announced plans to start an HD channel on our platform HD+. With this impressive growth, we further drive the digitalisation in Germany and confirm SES as a leader in digital broadcasting and HD.”

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