Pay-TV provider Premiere is postponing the launch of its HDTV channels by two weeks, to Saturday, 3 December 2005. The company says no HDTV receivers will yet be available in Germany and Austria on the originally planned date of 19 November because delivery of the required MPEG-4 decoder chipsets has been delayed. Premiere says chipset manufacturers will complete development shortly and the first HDTV receivers will be available at the beginning of December.
The HDTV launch will begin with the Premiere Philips HD Sport channel. On 3 December at 3:30 p.m., it will show the Bundesliga match between VfB Stuttgart and FC Bayern Munich live. Premiere HD Film and Discovery HD are also scheduled to launch on the same day.
Under the Premiere HD umbrella brand, the broadcaster offers three HD subscriptions: Premiere HD Film for feature films and series, Premiere HD Sport for leading national and international sport, and Premiere HD Thema for documentaries from Discovery. The HD subscriptions are available as add-ons to the corresponding standard Premiere subscription. Combined with Premiere Komplett, all three subscriptions start at €12 per month. For the market launch, Premiere is offering the new HD subscriptions free during a promotional phase lasting until mid-January 2006. Reception requires a digital receiver suitable for Premiere HD and a flat-panel display or projector carrying the “HD ready” mark.
Premiere broadcasts its HD channels using the new MPEG-4/H.264 compression method, which is intended to make widespread operation of HDTV channels economically viable for the first time, and in the 1080i format.
