Europe now has 941 HD channels

The development of the transition to high definition has accelerated in the last three years, and especially in the first months of 2012.

He European Audiovisual Observatory has just released its latest report on the television market in Europe. As it turns out, high definition continues to grow with strong momentum and there are already 941 channels that broadcast in HD in Europe.

The development of the transition to high definition has accelerated in the last three years, and especially in the first months of 2012. From 274 channels at the end of 2009, in 2011 they broadcast in HD 612 and at the beginning of October of this year the figure increased by 54% with 941 channels.

Sports, film and general channels (the main public and private service channels) are those that are pulling the HD car, followed by fiction, documentary and animation channels. The gap between sports and other genres has increased dramatically in the last year.

In terms of distribution, satellite and digital cable continue to be the main means of providing HD channels to the user. IPTV also provides a significant offer. Regarding digital terrestrial television, in October 2012 there were 116 HD channels available on DTT networks throughout Europe (free and paid), with the general public service and private channels being the most present on free DTT networks.

Regarding the origin and licenses of high definition channels, the United Kingdom (with 229) emerges as the territory where HD is most widespread, followed by Germany (108) and France (95).

Major channel packagers such as Discovery and National Geographic are based in the UK and target the rest of Europe, while BSkyB also offers a significant number of HD channels. France is home to a wide range of Eurosport channels targeting the rest of Europe and Sweden is the origin of Viasat channels targeting the Nordic countries.

The HBO family of channels that offer HD channels to a number of Central and Eastern European countries is based in the Czech Republic. The Sky satellite platform in Italy contributes to the high definition market with 30 channels. More than half of the HD adult channels in Europe are based in the Netherlands.