Internet TV provider Zattoo has commenced offering the live-streams of German public broadcasters Das Erste, ZDF and KiKA free-of-charge in HD quality to internet users in Germany.
The three channels (720p50, 5Mbps) were added to the advertising-supported line-up in all Zattoo apps.
“We expect HD resolution to become the standard in TV distribution in the near future,” said Jörg Meyer, chief officer content & consumer at Zattoo. “Zattoo is the first and online TV streaming provider in Germany offering HD channels permanently free-of-charge – not last to show the users of our free service the quality TV streaming has reached. It’s our ambition to position ourselves a bit more each day as an attractive alternative to more traditional TV reception methods.”
Zattoo has so far only been offering ARTE, SF info and Pearl.tv as free-of-charge HD streams. Das Erste HD, ZDF HD and KiKA HD were part of subscription package Zattoo HiQ along with around 30 further HD channels offered for €9.99 per month.
For HiQ customers, Zattoo recently introduced a restart function enabling viewers to set back a currently running programme and watch it completely from the beginning.
