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HDTV spreading in Bulgaria

Thu, May 22 2008 19:02 CET 298 Views
HDTV spreading in Bulgaria

CableTEL became the second Bulgarian cable operator to launch digital high-definition television (HDTV), announcing on May 22 that the service will be available by the end of the month.

The company's main competitor, Eurocom, has already announced the launching of the same service with three channels, Dnevnik daily said.

CableTEL's starting package includes four channels in the new format - Discovery, National Geographic, Eurosport and Premium Digital. By the end of 2008, the package would contain a total of 10 channels.

CableTEL's HDTV service will be available in 16 settlements, where the company has digital television platforms. The new platform cost 300 000 euro.

Dimitar Angelov, a member of CableTEL's board of directors, said that because of the high prices of decoders and the expensive rights for broadcasting HDTV, at first mainly high-end customers would use the service. More than 200 000 plasma and LCD TV sets have been sold in Bulgaria and the owners of these TV sets were the potential customers of the service.

CableTEL's HDTV service is offered at 19.90 leva monthly fee, on top of the subscription fee for regular cable. The decoder costs 349 leva.

Another service CableTEL is launching was the possibility to record a show and watch it later. The monthly fee for the service is 9.90 leva and the recording device costs 249 leva.

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