German adult-oriented music channel Onyx TV is to launch its digital package this summer. In addition, the main channel currently only available in digital on Hot Bird (13 degress East) will be made available on an analogue transponder on the Astra 1 platform (19.2 degrees East).

The announcement was made by managing director Michel Assouline during the Medienforum NRW media conference in Cologne. The digital bouquet will include thematic music channels, covering for example country and jazz, as well as channels dedicated to nature, science, automobile, erotic and interactive entertainment. The ‘Onyx Plus’ package will be created in collaboration with Onyx-TV’s main shareholder, French Groupe AB, which already operates its own packages on Eutelsat and Astra. According to Assouline, the offer will consist of 12 channels until the end of 2001. He outlined that the analogue Astra transmission would start in “forseeable future”, giving the channel “an enourmous boost” in its technical reach and market potential.

Eutelsat’s fast developing 8 degrees West slot looks like the most likely home for the package. The majority of German cable operators will have access to the slot, ostensibly because of the international FSP package that launches there in September, DTH viewership will have to be sacrificed.

Currently, the Cologne-based channel is available to more then ten million German cable homes and to Hot Bird’s DTH base.