Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), the Bavarian affiliate of German public broadcaster ARD, will offer its educational TV channel ARD-alpha in HD quality from January 2019.
During the course of this year, the technical requirements will be established to provide the channel in native HD resolution, a BR spokesman told German industry magazine InfoDigital.
“In all likelihood, ARD-alpha HD will be broadcast via satellite from January 2019. As a result, we assume that ARD-alpha will then also be redistributed in HD by cable operators,” said the spokesman.
On the Bavarian DVB-T2 network, ARD-alpha is already broadcasting in HD format, but not in native HD, but upconverted SD.
With the launch of Radio Bremen TV HD in Q1 2019, all ARD television channels will be available in native HD quality. The last channel having launched an HD service was SR Fernsehen in February 2016.
