In a decision which will make Eutelsatis Hot Bird position at 13 degrees East more popular in German-speaking Europe, German public broadcaster ZDF has announced it plans to remain on Hot Bird 5 permanently as a free-to-air digital service. According to chairman Dieter Stolte, the Hot Bird transmission is mainly serving remote areas which canit be reached by the Astra satellites. The target groups are hotels and the cable networks of business centres in which German people work. At the end of June, ZDF began its digital transmission as a test within the German digital platform on transponder 127 (11.054 GHz H, SR 27.500, FEC 5/6). The bouquet includes RTL Television, SAT.1 Austria, RTL 2 Austria, Vox, NBC/NBC GIGA, K-TV and (encrypted) CNN Germany. Also present are Greek radio station To Proto – Hellenic Radio Europe 1 and instore radio channel MagicStar. According to industry sources, fellow public broadcaster ARD also intends to broadcast on Hot Bird to reach holiday-makers and businesspeople in remote areas and has already secured an option for a digital channel.