MTV heads for HD+ in Germany

Viacom is to migrate its German MTV HD channel to the SES-backed HD satellite platform HD+ from the beginning of September.

MTV HD will henceforth be a free-to-air service on satellite, with HD+ users paying an annual technical fee to receive the raft of services on the platform. HD+ had around 1.4 million paying customers and a further 1.3 million on free trials at the end of last year.

Viacom’s northern Europe chief Magnus Kastner had previously indicated that MTV would become an HD-only brand.