Despite political pressure to keep the two main German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF on the Belgacom IPTV platform, no agreement could be reached to continue carriage.
Belgacom has decided to keep to its decision to drop the two channels, said spokesperson Jan Margot to VRT Nieuws. The broadcasters doubled the amount Belgacom has to pay to carry ARD and ZDF from EUR500,000 to EUR1 million.
Cable operators Telenet in Flanders and VOO in French speaking Belgium continue to carry the two channels on their network.
According to the VRT newscast, the demand for satellite dishes hs grown as a result of the Belgacom move. All German public and private broadcasters are available as free-to-air signals on the Astra satellite at 19.2 degrees East
