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Seven matches from the forthcoming Euro 2016 football championships will be screened to Italian viewers by Rai from the Eutelsat Hotbird neighbourhood in Ultra HD.
They’ll be made available through the Tivùsat platform and represent Italy’s most signicant satellite broadcast of live sport in the Ultra HD format. Eutelsat says the move is a precursor to regular Ultra HD channels.
Coverage begins on 30 June, with the first match of the quarter-finals, followed on 1, 2 and 3 July by the other quarter final matches. The semi-finals will be broadcast in Ultra HD on 6 and 7 July with the final scheduled for 10 July.
In addition to an Ultra HD screen, viewers will also require a CAM certified by Tivùsat will be able to watch the matches by tuning to the number of the special channel to be activated by Tivùsat for the championship.
Take-up of Ultra HD screens in Italy is accelerating, with ANITEC, the Italian association representing the ICT industry, forecasting that sales will surpass one million units by end 2016.
The special broadcasts also involve the support of industry-leading technology partners, including V-Nova from the UK that will provide the P.Link 4K, a software-based contribution encoding and decoding system that will contribute the highest signal quality from the International Broadcasting Centre to be located in Paris.
By the end of 2016, Eutelsat will be broadcasting 11 RAI channels in HD.
