Russian HD takes off

CSTB – MOSCOW. Viewers in Russia can expect to be offered at least six HD channels by this autumn. Earlier this week the DTH platform NTV-Plus announced at CSTB in Moscow that it will be launching three HD channels at the end of March. Distributed by Eutelsat’s W4, they will offer sport, movies and live documentaries, in the latter instance styled on content produced by Discovery Channel. NTV-Plus has 550,000 subscribers nationally and began HD trials last December. Its technology partners for the new sservice include Harmonic, which will be supplying MPEG-4 decoders. The MMDS operator Kosmos TV is also undertaking HD trials ahead of a planned launch in September. It aims to offer three European HD channels, along with any produced by Sistema Mass Media, which holds a 50% stake in the company. Kosmos TV currently distributes 70 SDTV channels to 50,000 subscribers in Moscow and environs. Its offer does not as yet include such additional services as VOD. (CD)