German broadcasters split over HD fees

Germany’s commercial and free-to-air broadcasters are divided over whether to charge for their upcoming high definition TV services, according to German reports.

Public broadcaster ZDF is understood to be keen that its HD offering is kept free of charge, while ProSiebenSat.1 and RTL want to levy a fee of about €5 a month. The HD services will be beamed to homes by SES and the HD Plus service will require customers to buy a set-top.