Modern Times Group, the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that Viasat Broadcasting has signed an agreement with TV2 Norway to include the TV2 channel, the TV2 news channel and the TV2 movie channel on Viasat’s DTH satellite pay-TV platform in Norway. more ››

MTV Networks International’s (MTVNI) Emerging Markets group has launched MTV Hungary, a new 24-hour advertiser-supported Hungarian-language channel available to nearly 1.5 million households in the region via cable and DTH platforms. more ››

HD suisse is to be the name of the new nationwide Swiss HD channel to be launched before the end of the year by public broadcaster SRG SSR. For the time being there will be one channel serving all official four languages spoken in the country. HD suisse will broadcast programming from the four public broadcasters SF, TSR, TSI and TvR. more ››

Lately NASN (North American Sports Network) 24-hour sports channel has been launched in Poland on the digital platform n. This step is part of company's rapid expansion across Europe. more ››

The BBC's commercial arm is planning to launch five new channels; alongside BBC Knowledge, BBC Worldwide is planning to inject BBC Entertainment (replacing BBC Prime), BBC HD, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies into various international markets - with India and the US being top targets. more ››

Pace Micro Technology has been selected by Sky Italia as a launch partner for its HDTV service. Pace is supplying its next generation HD receiver to Sky Italia - the DS815NS. The DS815 incorporates DVB-S2 technology - giving up to a 30% improvement in performance - and H.264 compression decoding. more ››

From the autumn of 2006 on Euro1080 will launch a series of regional culture channels, which will be branded HD3. In total, 11 culture channels will be set up in the period 2006-2008 for different European regions: Flanders, The Netherlands, the French language region, the German language region, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, UK, Poland, Russia and Turkey. more ››

The BBC will give the UK's first high-definition viewers a curtain-raising treat of the whole of Planet Earth part one, followed by classic Dickens drama Bleak House over Whitsun Bank Holiday - 27 to 29 May 2006. The BBC's HD stream starts broadcasting on 11 May with a promotional preview. more ››

Since 1st of November all ITV channels from Astra 2D (28.2 E) are being broadcasted without any encryption, so the whole ITV package can be watched using plain FTA receivers along with BBC channels. Highest signal level can be experienced in Great Britain and Ireland since Astra 2D’s beams cover mainly these countries, to receive this package in middle Europe one needs antennas with diameter ranging from 1,3-3,0m in eastern Europe. more ››

MTV in HDTV starting in January, the music network will launch a new high definition music channel. Dubbed MHD, initial content will be drawn from taped concerts including MTV Unplugged, the MTV2 $2 Bill series, VH1 Storytellers, and CMT Crossroads. more ››