The HD versions of the three Dutch public channels Nederland 1, 2 and 3 will become available on the DTH platform Canal Digitaal Satelliet by March 31, 2010 at the latest. The channels will be available free-to-view.
At the moment, only Nederland 3 HD is available on satellite. The other two channels will be added when Canal Digitaal (CDS) has re-arranged its bouquet of thematic channel on a transponder at Astra at 23.5 degrees East. Currently broadcast in MPEG-2, the thematic channels will switch to MPEG-4 in order to make bandwidth available for the additional HD channels.
Dutch viewers are entitled to free reception of the SD versions of the public broadcasters with a smart card from CDS. The same procedure will be used for the reception of the three public HD channels.
