Pan-European sports channel Eurosport is to be made available within the digital free-to-air package of German public broadcaster ZDF. According to a statement, a contract was signed last week by ZDF’s chairman Dieter Stolte and Eurosport’s general director Jean-Pierre Paoli at ZDF’s headquarters in Mainz. QVC, the US-owned shopping channel has also secured independent capacity, thus completing the line-up of analogue broadcasters that have switched to the digital format.

The second channel joining ZDF’s digital package next year is EuroNews. The pan-European news channel confirmed last week that it has signed a contract with the Mainz-based broadcaster. EuroNews so far has only been available as a digital free-to-air channel on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird position at 13 degrees East. The inclusion in ZDF’s digital package that’s available on Astra and on cable networks in Germany, effectively makes the channel receivable by all digital homes.

The addition of all three channels means that there is no longer a need for the German DTH viewer to maintain a second analogue receiver to watch the full complement of channels.