Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber has launched the new HDTV television service in Europe as part of the Medientage München media event in Munich.
In the opening ceremony, Stoiber pushed the red button for Sat.1 HD and ProSieben HD. The ProSiebenSat.1 Group is the first TV corporation in Europe to transmit the HD format, and its two channels will broadcast in HDTV alongside SD. Both HD stations will be available via the ASTRA satellite system.
Sat.1 HD and ProSieben HD will be distributed from ASTRA using the new DVB-S 2 modulation. Both stations will show HDTV content in 1080i/50 format using MPEG-4/AVC compression.
