German public broadcaster ARD has discontinued the satellite transmission of its main channel Das Erste and all regional channels on Astra (19.2° East) in SD resolution on 7 January 2025.
The channels can still be received in HD quality. The move, which was announced in September 2023, marks the end of 14 years of parallel broadcasting of the channels in SD and HD resolution. Cable operators, including market leader Vodafone Deutschland, will also only distribute the ARD channels in HD resolution with immediate effect.
The background to the switch-off is that the use of SD broadcasting has been declining continuously for years and only a small proportion of TV households in Germany still use SD exclusively. ARD is thereby reducing the costs of programme distribution and meeting the requirements for the economic use of the public TV licence fees.
Viewers who have not yet switched to HD will see a caption with information on the switch-off on the former SD channel slots until 30 January 2025. Information can also be found online at www.ard-digital.de/sd.
On 18 November 2025, fellow public broadcaster ZDF will cease SD satellite transmission of its main channel ZDF and thematic channels ZDFinfo, ZDFneo, 3sat and KiKA via Astra.
The commercial broadcasters, including RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat.1, however, want to continue SD distribution indefinitely. The reason: unlike the public broadcasters, the HD versions of their channels are not unencrypted, but are part of the subscription-based, encrypted Astra satellite platform HD+ and can also only be received on most cable networks for an additional charge. By switching off SD, the broadcasters would lose viewers and therefore advertising revenue.
