German regional public broadcaster WDR from Cologne plans to test HD transmissions on satellite later this year, according to Rainer Hesels, responsible for television strategy and online, in an article in the in-house magazine WDR In-Print. “We already shoot most prouctions in HD,” he said, but he expects regular HD transmissions from the German public channels to start somewhere between 2010 and 2012.
WDR, the largest and most cash-rich of all regional broadcasters, plans to transmit all their programmes in widescreen by the end of this year. The HD pilot will also take place this year as well as tests with mobile TV in the region of Cologne.
