Kabel Deutschland (KDG) is to offer the remaining five HD channels from the Sky Deutschland package that do not already feature on the 9.1 million-subscriber net.
Sky Cinema HD, Sky Sport HD, Disney Cinemagic HD, Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, History HD and Eurosport HD will now all be made available to KDG customers with the appropriate Sky subscription. Previously only Sky Sport HD and Discovery HD were carried by the cablenet.
“Television in HD quality is becoming an important issue for our customers, the demand for HD services is rising significantly. Therefore, we are pleased to strengthen the long-standing, good relationship with Sky by bringing HDTV forward together,” said Kabel Deutschland CEO Adrian von Hammerstein.
Sky Deutschland CEO Mark Williams added that the partnership with KDG represented an important part of the operator’s growth plans. “This agreement provides for the many customers that receive our programmes over Kabel Deutschland, and represents added value, since our full HD offer can now be enjoyed.”
After a slow start, Germany now seems ready to embrace high definition programmes, driven by the rebranding and repackaging of the former Premiere pay-TV platform as Sky Deutschland.
Earlier this year KDG agreed the carriage of the two HD channels from public broadcasters ARD and ZDF following a trial run during the World Athletics Championships in August.