Viasat launches high-definition offerings in Europe
by Darren Murph 
posted Jan 16th 2008 at 2:44AM
Don't look now, but Viasat Broadcasting has just launched its first high-definition offerings (including two Viasat-branded premium HDTV channels, TV1000 HD and Viasat Sport HD) on its Nordic satellite pay-TV platform. Reportedly, TV1000 HD and National Geographic HD will be available in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, while Viasat Sport HD makes its debut in Sweden, Norway and Finland; as for Danish subscribers, they'll have access to TV2 Sport HD. Unfortunately, fetching said programming won't come cheap, as it'll demand SEK/NOK/DKK 99 per month (between $15 and $20) in addition to the currently undisclosed HD set-top-box upgrade cost. Speaking of which, two STBs will initially be available: a Viasat Plus HD PVR box from Pace and a standard Viasat HD box made by Samsung, both of which use NDS middleware / content security and support 720p / 1080i. And we thought we were starved for HD...
Our European brethren continue to play catch up on HDTV, with Danish telephone company TDC announcing a new broadband
network for what is commonly called the "triple play" services (TV/phone/internet), featuring broadband at
50Mbps as well as HDTV and VOD. And they're rolling it out quickly, apparently they will be able to cover 80 percent of
the country's homes with the network in just two years.
