UPC to offer HD before the summer

[BGonaSTICK]

UPC Netherlands will start to offer an HD bouquet to its Dutch digital subscribers before the summer, a company spokesperson said. Last year the operator ’soft launched’ a service just before the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament, but due to problems with the delivery of HD set-top boxes only a few dozen viewers were able to watch HD.

A full roll-out of the HD service was pushed back to last autumn, but at the time priority was given to the introduction of the UPC Mediabox PVR. Now, the operator will launch HD before the summer. Chellomedia already has two HD channels on the Dutch market, Sport1 and Film1, which have been available to subscribers to other cable networks.

So far UPC had not announced any pricing for the HD package and no details yet about the channels that will be part of the offer. Other Dutch cable operators offer Discovery HD, National Geographioc HD and HD1 from Euro1080 as well as the two premium channels from Chellomedia.