Romania: HD Options to Expand this Month


Romanians in Bucharest and some outlying regions of the nation will have at least two more options for HD services — and presumably some more competitive pricing options — starting this month. Both Romtelecom and RCS/RDS will launch their own respective HD tiers.

Romtelecom says it will offer HD services to subscribers of Dolce (Romania's second-biggest largest DBS firm) for the first time, as well as to cabler NextGen, starting this weekend (June 4).

But HD access will be sparse, at first. Dolce subs will start out receiving only four channels: Discovery HD, HD TVR, Pro TV HD and Showcase HD Sport.ro. (Until now, only Romtelecom's IPTV subs have been offered HD channels.)

RCS/RDS has provided no details of its own HD launch plans, except to acknowledge that it, too, plans an HD ramp-up sometime here in June.

Romania, a satellite state of the former Soviet Union that's still struggling with both its telecommunications and economic infrastructures, already has limited access to HD services. Cabler UPC began offering subs a handful of HD venues several months ago. Meanwhile, UPC's own DBS service (Focus Sat) also plans to start offering HD channels in late 2010.