SES has announced that it will be broadcasting Europe’s first, free-to-air Ultra HD channel – German shopping channel ‘pearl.tv’ will be launched in September this year via the Astra 19.2 degrees East satellite.
The entire channel will be produced and broadcast entirely in Ultra HD. Pearl.tv’s parent company, Enstyle GmbH will lease additional capacity for the new channel launch and will also contract SES Platform Services, an SES subsidiary, to manage the technical operations of the broadcast. Pearl.tv will also continue broadcasting in SD and HD.
Dr. Michael Sichler, Managing Director of Enstyle GmbH, expressed his delight with the cutting-edge nature of the development for the channel, “Years ago, pearl.tv was the first shopping channel to broadcast its programme in native HD. Today, by being the first to launch pearl.tv in Ultra HD, we are once again demonstrating our strength as technological leaders in the European media industry. We will also be producing and broadcasting pearl.tv in native Ultra HD from a brand new studio.”
Chief Commercial Officer of SES, Ferdinand Kayser, also lauded the partnership, while citing the technical quality and excellence of company capabilities:
“SES has been at the forefront of Ultra HD developments since 2011. Our satellites can deliver a truly immersive Ultra HD experience, because satellites are the only infrastructure capable of distributing native Ultra HD in extremely high quality throughout Europe to millions of TV homes. We are proud that we will be working together with our partner to achieve the next Ultra HD milestone and broadcast Europe's first commercial free-to-air Ultra HD channel to the 18 million direct-to-home households we serve in Germany today.”
