Russia’s Comstar-Direct, which operates under the brand name Stream TV, has soft-launched a HDTV service. It will offer four channels – Discovery HD, MelodyZen, Luxe TV and Voom HD – as well as a package of 10 films using its VOD service – up until June 1, after which the offer will be expanded. According to Comstar-Direct, which is a subsidiary of Comstar-UTS, once its service is fully up and running subscribers will be offered a variety of tariff plans including high speed Internet access at speeds of up to 10Mbps and the Stream TV IPTV service. HD services were first introduced into Russia by NTV-Plus last year.