SRG SSR to launch ’shared’ HD channel in 2007

[BGonaSTICK]

Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR will launch a ’shared’ HD channel before the end of this year to be in time for HD coverage of the Euro 2008 championship to be held in Switzerland and Austria. The new dedicated HD channel will show movies, sports and other HD programming in French, German and Italian simultaneously.

In 2011/2012 the Swiss broadcaster plans to have to the first and second SRG SSR channels in full HD. The original plan was to introduce full time HD broadcasts for all channels in 2010, but due to financial restraints the switchover to full HD has been delayed for two years. The broadcasters has reported a deficit of 25 million swiss francs for the past year, mainly due to the high costs involved with the Olympic Winter Games and FIFA 2006 coverage and the digital switch over to DTT and T-DAB.