We've been awfully hard on Toshiba's super-resolution upscaling pitch, but it looks like the tech may be a good fit for the Netherlands, where HD subscriptions are having a hard time getting off the ground despite an explosion in the number of HDTVs taking up residence in Dutch homes. Estimates put the number of households receiving HD signal at a paltry 85,000 in a country where 1.2 million HD sets are supposed to sell through this year alone. Maybe those people are waiting for the free OTA HD stuff, but based on what's in the pipeline, there's no telling how long it will be before HD pixels become abundant.

Now here's a trend we can really get behind. Just weeks after four French national channels decided that the grass was greener (or at least clearer) on the high-def side, a trio of Dutch broadcasters have announced their intentions to follow suit. Beginning in Q2 2009, Nederland 1, 2 and 3 will begin broadcasting in high-definition, and initially 15% of all primetime content will be shot in HD; the rest will "upscaled to HD," which frightens us just a wee bit. We're also told that carriage negotiations are already underway with "all major distributing platforms including cablers UPC and Ziggo," but only time will tell if anyone is willing to sacrifice the bandwidth for the sake of high quality.

Ons Net, a FTTH provider in The Netherlands, has just cranked up a new promotion that should be music to the ears of consumers in that area of the world. Starting on September 1st, HDTV programming will be offered up for free with the purchase of its digital television package. Currently, said tier contains 51 channels for €7.50 ($11), and an additional 20 channels can be purchased for €3.95 ($6). Granted, you will need to purchase a set-top-box for €149.95 ($223), but that's a minuscule price to pay for gratis access to Discovery HD, Brava HD and soon-to-come HD versions of Dutch and Belgian public channels, right?

[Via Broadband TV News]

Rekindling the 1080i vs. 720p HD debate, Dutch pubcaster NPO is offering an HD version of Nederland 1 HD in 1080i as opposed to 720p because of complaints about picture quality. Apparently many of the complaints stemmed from the Euro 2008 matches after the native feed was made to do the 1080i/720p switch by technical partner Technicolor, and resulted in many complaints. The 1080i feed is in testing now on several broadcasters, so any of our Dutch readers give it a shot and see if you notice the difference. As ignorant Americans we generally avoid such issues by simply ignoring sports outside our borders, but highlights of Euro 2008 looked pretty good on ESPN HD's 720p feed, so we're leaning more towards equipment or compression problems as being behind the gripes until proven otherwise.

Shortly after Canal Digitaal launched its first HD channels in the Dutch market, the satcaster has announced plans to pick up VOOM HD in June. With the addition, the outfit's high-definition lineup will consist of Discovery HD, National Geographic HD, BravaHD and -- from the summer onwards -- Nederland 1 HD. Mum's the word on a price hike, so here's to hoping subscribers won't have to pony up anything extra to enjoy the stations that DISH Network just dropped like a bad habit.

As the European HD changes continue to roll out, along comes news that Canal Digitaal is getting set to launch its first HD channels in the Dutch market. Details are fairly scarce at the moment, but we are hearing that National Geographic HD and Discovery Channel HD will indeed be landing in April, and negotiations are still ongoing to throw Dutch Classic Music Channel BravaHDTV into that mix. Reportedly, the HD tier will cost a stiff €9.95 ($15) per month after the first free month that's provided to all that wish to accept, but here's to hoping that becomes a bargain as more channels are added in.

[Thanks, Richard]

Aw yeah, we knew this day was coming (or at least we thought), but it's thrilling to see the big shots keeping their word and actually going through with something in a timely manner. In a move sure to cause backlash and rejoicing alike, the Dutch have officially yanked the plug on OTA analog broadcasts, leaving a host of open frequencies that we're sure will be put to good use. Although just a small percentage of customers actually rely solely on those (now) antiquated signals, those folks who are now forced to search for alternate forms of fetching television can purchase a digital terrestrial tuner for around $66.50. The bandwidth formerly used by analog has been "licensed through 2017 by Royal KPN NV, which will use it to broadcast digital television." The government is suggesting that killing the old broadcasts will "save them around $14 million annually," not to mention the segment of new customers looking for service will hopefully drive competition within the cable / IPTV market there. So for those holding it down in the Netherlands, be sure to pop the champagne while everybody else sits around and waits it out.

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.

No word on pricing, compression or programming but who needs details anyway?