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Premiere pushes for HDTV commitment |
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| Jörn Krieger, on 27-08-2008 |
 German pay-TV operator Premiere is pushing for more commitment to high definition television from German broadcasters, especially free-to-air channels.
“More HDTV channels must finally launch in Germany,” said Premiere’s
chief programme officer Hans Seger in Munich. “HDTV is taken for
granted in many European countries, even public broadcasters like the
BBC in the UK are fully devoted to high definition. In contrast, German
broadcasters stick to repeatedly screening showcases and launching what
they call quality offensives or merely push the 16:9 format which has
been around since the 1990s. For television viewers who have purchased
great flat screen sets, that’s poor consolation. And for Germany, as
one of the most innovative countries in the world, that’s a very
pitiful picture. Austria and Switzerland are both at least a step in
front of us.”
Many broadcasters point to the limited number of households with HDTV
receivers as the reason for their holding back from the new technology.
“The argument about the lack of reception devices is absurd,” Seger
complained. “When colour television was first introduced there were
hardly any appropriate television sets. And in the 1990s many channels
commenced digital transmissions, although there were only few digital
receivers.”
Seger also dismissed the argument regarding lack of broadcasting
capacity: “With the bandwidth occupied by the analogue signal of
[educational channel] BRalpha alone public broadcasters could transmit
up to four HD channels.”
With Premiere HD and Discovery HD, Premiere currently offers two high
definition channels which have attracted more than 120,000 subscribers.
Seger stressed, however, that Premiere could not promote the HDTV
market single handed, but was prepared for further commitment to the
technology. “We can well imagine collaborating with other broadcasters
to extend the HDTV offer and therefore promote HDTV in Germany.
Discussions to this purpose are already in progress.”
© Rapid TV News 2008
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