The Czech public broadcaster CT will start trial satellite HD transmissions on August 31, with a view to launching a full service in time for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.
The service will be known as CT HD and mostly carrying programmes up-scaled from SD, though some will be in native HD.
It will employ MPEG-4 and 1080i25 and be distributed initially by Astra 1E at 23.5 degrees East in DVB-S.
However, it will then switch to Astra 3B and DVB-S2.
Although CT HD will use CryptoWorks conditional access, it will not be a paid-for channel, with viewers only requiring access cards from the DTH platforms Skylink or CS Link.