[Satellite TODAY Insider 03-01-11] Deutsche Telekom (DT) has signed a deal with SES Astra to combine Astra`s satellite free-TV offer, including HD Plus, with its IPTV product Entertain Sat, DT announced Feb. 28.
    The offer makes DT the latest European telco to integrate a satellite product in its home market offering, which will include all FTA, TV and radio channels in standard and high-definition. Entertain Sat comprises time-shift functions and hard disk recording with 500 GB memory and will be available for households all across Germany with a DSL connection of at least 3 Megabits-per-second.   
    “Our Entertain service currently reaches about 20 million households in Germany. With our satellite offer, we will address new customer groups and convince even more customers of our TV offer. Astra`s technical reach of more than 16 million satellite households in Germany and the switch-off of the analogue satellite reception in April 2012 represent a particularly interesting and attractive potential for Entertain Sat,” DT spokesman Christian Illek said in a statement.
    DT is attempting to strengthen its presence in the German TV and video market. In its full year results for 2010, DT revealed that it had sold around 1.6 million Entertain packages, an increase of 81 percent, exceeding the target for the year of 1.5 million in Germany. DT also has a presence in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. By the end of 2010, it had over 650,000 IPTV users outside of Germany – a 50 percent increase compared to the same stage last year.   
    In October, the operator announced plans to bring a satellite TV service to customers in the Czech Republic, which launched at the start of November. Slovak Telecom (ST), another DT subsidiary, launched services via satellite in its home market in early 2010.

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