ARD open for transition to DVB-T2

German public broadcaster ARD wants to hold onto the digital terrestrial distribution of its TV channels and would be open to a transition from the currently employed transmission standard DVB-T to the successor system DVB-T2 which enables more channels and HDTV offerings via DTT.

This landmark decision on terrestrial distribution was made by ARD’s general directors at their latest meeting in Saarbrücken, rapidtvnews.com reports.

As a successor to DVB-T, the public broadcaster supports a hybrid solution in which conventional TV channels would be transmitted via DVB-T2 in HD quality while interactive services such as catch-up TV portals would be sent to TV screens using IP-based infrastructures such as Wi-Fi or mobile networks.

Due to the contracts for the existing DVB-T transmitter network and the investments made in the past, ARD’s entry into DVB-T2 would be possible between 2016 and 2018 at the earliest.

In ARD’s view, the availability of commercial channels is absolutely necessary for market success of digital terrestrial broadcasting. At the same time, ARD’s directors affirmed that the public broadcaster’s channels would continue to be transmitted unencrypted.