Eutelsat to boost HD at KabelKiosk

Satellite operator Eutelsat wants to expand the HD line-up of its German direct-to-cable platform KabelKiosk.Four new HD channels will be added by mid-2012, Martina Rutenbeck, managing director of Eutelsat visAvision, announced at Eutelsat's New Year reception in Berlin on 2 February 2012. Rutenbeck didn't want to disclose details about the new additions, however, as negotiations would still be underway. In total, KabelKiosk now has 15 HD channels on board. There would be high demand from broadcasters for HD capacity on the platform, Rutenbeck predicted. KabelKiosk also wants to expand its interactive media portal KabelKiosk Choice this year: The offering, which is being tested by the first cable operators since the end of 2012, will be rolled out to mobile reception devices such as Apple's iPad, among other plans. Video-on-Demand (VOD) was currently the segment which gets most demand, said Rutenbeck. The service, which is based on the HbbTV standard, supplements the KabelKiosk channels with multimedia offerings. For reception, viewers need a hybrid TV set or set-top-box connected with the internet. In the satellite area, Eutelsat wants to develop its orbital position 9° West  into a new key position for Europe. More than 320 TV channels are already available at 9° East, 10% of them in HD. As an attractive benefit Rutenbeck considers its closeness to Eutelsat's main position 13° East as it enables dual-feed solutions to receive both positions using a single dish. Besides Eurobird 9A, KA-SAT is located at 9° East which can provide highspeed internet services to indvidual target regions through special beams. As new partners to market the internet services on KA-SAT, Eutelsat announced the German companies getinternet, a sister company of getmobile, and EuroSkyPark. KabelKiosk uses capacity at 9° East to feed its signals to the cable head-ends of its platform partners. As part of the planned expansion of the position, Eutelsat could make the KabelKiosk channels at 9° East available for DTH reception by distributing the KabelKiosk package to DTH satellite viewers. According to Rutenbeck, the opening of KabelKiosk for the DTH market is "always an option", but there weren't currently any firm plans for this.