An Enstyle facility. Photo: Enstyle

[Via Satellite 05-21-2015] SES has announced plans to launch a Free-to-Air (FTA) Ultra-High Definition (Ultra-HD) channel in Europe this September. The Enstyle GmbH company pearl.tv, a German shopping channel, will broadcast from Astra 19.2 degrees east. The company plans to purchase additional capacity from SES in order to launch the new channel, which it will natively produce and broadcast from a new studio. Enstyle GmbH will also contract SES Platform Services, a subsidiary of SES, to manage the technical operations of the Ultra-HD broadcast.

“We will be working together with our partner to achieve the next Ultra-HD milestone and broadcast Europe’s first commercial FTA Ultra-HD channel to the 18 million Direct-to-Home (DTH) households we serve in Germany today,” said Ferdinand Kayser, chief commercial officer of SES.

SES also has plans to launch an Ultra-HD demo channel in the United States this summer. Enstyle GmbH will continue to broadcast pearl.tv in Standard Definition (SD) and HD as well.