Eurosport said it soon will start up an HD channel that will simulcast most of the major sporting events for which it holds the rights this year, starting with the French (tennis) Open.
The Eurosport group (which extends into several European countries) said its investment in HD technology is a major priority this year. In the next several months, besides the French Open, major sporting events on Eurosport’s new HD channel will include the US Open, UEFA Euro 2008, Tour de France, and the 2008 Olympiad in Beijing.
Eurosport said major HD-SD simulcast carriage deals, to date, have been signed in Scandinavia and other regions, mostly southern Europe. More deals will be signed in coming weeks, it said. Eurosport plans to offer as much “native HD content” as possible and will extend its HD coverage to Eurosport 2, its news channel (although much of its field news content will remain 4:3 SD for now).
