Entavio is to extend its reach to Germany’s cable networks following an agreement between the SES-Astra pay-TV platform and the cable facilities company Kabel Dienstleistungs GmbH (KDL). The service will be offered on small to medium sized networks belonging to the Fachverband Rundfunkempfangs- und Kabelanlagen (FRK). It will be rolled out between now and the autumn of 2008.
The cable operators will make Entavio enabled cable tuners available to their customers and feed the encrypted satellite signals directly onto their networks. Entavio will not market or sell these cable tuners, but only approve them. Consumers will have to buy the equipment on a retail basis. The new service will compete with the existing Kabelkiosk service from Eutelsat and Visavision, which offers a similar service to small and medium sized operators.
