The German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 plans to charge cable and IPTV operators for the distribution of their HD channels. The HD versions of ProSieben, Sat.1 and Kabel eins will become available in HD to cablers during the first half of next year.
At the moment, the three HD channels are available on the HD+ platform from SES-Astra and on the Eutelsat Kabelkiosk service. Early next year, the broadcaster hopes to sign distribution deals with all major cable and IPTV operators.
ProSiebenSat.1 will want additional payments from the operators in order to compensate for the additional costs of producing HD channels. It seems likely that the operators will pass on the bill to their customers.
Germany’s other main commercial broadcaster, RTL Deutschland, has so far not made any decision on their HD channels RTL HD, Vox HD and RTL 2 HD. At the moment, they are only available on the SES Astra HD+ platform.
