German telco Deutsche Telekom has commenced SD switch-off on the cable network of its Austrian subsidiary Magenta Telekom.
The first 22 SD channels have already been removed; others will follow step by step. The channels can still be received in high resolution (HD).
The affected channels are 13th Street, Syfy, Kinowelt, RTL Crime, RTL Passion, Kabel Eins Classics, Romance TV, TNT Serie, FOX, Eurosport 2, eSports1, auto motor und sport channel, RTL Living, E!, Fashion TV, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, Crime + Investigation, Animal Planet and Planet.
In Magenta’s latest TV product, the Entertain Box 4K, launched in May 2020, the 22 SD channels were not on the channel list from the outset. A caption on the channels’ former SD slots redirects viewers to the HD broadcast.
According to Magenta, SD switch-off is a reaction to the fact that the majority of customers are already receiving HD channels: 87% of Austrian TV households have HD TV sets; in 2010 the share was only 24%.
In the long term, Magenta wants to offer only channels broadcasting with a minimum resolution of HD.
Magenta Telekom was created in 2019 from the merger of Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile Austria with cable operator UPC Austria, which Telekom acquired from Liberty Global for €1.9 billion in 2018.
