Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 11, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
ZDF Director-General Markus Schächter presented ZDF’s path to the introduction of HDTV in Berlin on Thursday, April 10, 2008. Speaking at a symposium of the Deutsche TV-Plattform, he said: “The time is ripe for HDTV, for an important pillar in the changed digital world.” ZDF had set its path to high-definition television early, taking into account the many new perspectives that digitisation offers television.
Like ARD, ZDF will begin regular HDTV operations in February 2010 with coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Before then, the intensive preparation phase will begin with the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August 2009 – as host broadcaster, ZDF will then offer an HD signal worldwide.
Schächter stressed that ZDF is already creating a considerable stock of programming in “genuine” HDTV, which will facilitate the start of regular operations from 2010. On the public broadcasters’ caution on the road to HDTV, often criticised in earlier years, the ZDF Director-General said: “This has since been vindicated by actual market developments.” However, the digitisation of the entire production and transmission chain, right through to receiving equipment, will ensure in the near future that the conditions for introducing HDTV are considerably better than in earlier years.
At the 17th symposium of the Deutsche TV-Plattform, television professionals and industry representatives, technicians and managers are discussing the road to HDTV. The Deutsche TV-Plattform is an association of programme producers and providers, private and public broadcasters, network operators, federal ministries and state governments, research institutes and other companies concerned with the future of television.
