Fox Entertainment’s FX service is to launch a high definition service in the next few months. The channel has received a licence from Ofcom as part of the latest batch of services to be authorised by the regulator.
At the same time, National Geographic Channel has received a licence for an HD service it plans to launch in the Benelux market. Currently Nat Geo’s European affiliates receive the UK version of the HD feed.
Regional manager Raymond van der Vliet told Broadband TV News that capacity had been secured on all the major Dutch networks; UPC, Essent, Casema, CAIW and Multikabel. The channel will also be available in Belgium on the In.Di platform.
It is anticipated that NatGeo will roll out its HD service, already available in the UK, to all of its European markets within the next few months. Since the beginning of the month NatGeo’s HD service has been available in the Nordic market from Canal Digital. There are also HD services in France and Italy.
Among the other licences awarded, MTV Networks has been authorised for ReplayTV; ITV for its recently launched timeshift channel ITV2+1 and GMTV for GMTV2+1, which extends the breakfast broadcaster’s output onto the ITV digital channel.
