Germany’s largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland KDG has reached agreement to carry three public HD channels on is network, Das Erste HD, ZDF HD and Arte HD.
The broadcasters have signed a ‘long term agreement’ with the cabler within the existing carriage contracts of the public channels and will not lead to an increase in subscription fees. The HD channels will be distributed unencrypted.
Distribution of the channels will start in time for the Olympic Winter games in Vancouver, which will be covered in HD by ARD and ZDF.
No financial details of the agreement have been published, but the German cable operators have protested against the fact that the broadcasters pay for distribution on digital terrestrial and satellite without offering any monetary compensation to the cable operators.
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