Sky has today announced the launch of 3 more High Definition channels, reaching a new milestone by exceeding 40 HD Channels.

Sky have already announced the launch of Sky News HD, meaning a total of 4 HD channels will be launching over the next few months.

Sky plans to reach 50 HD channels by Christmas this year.

ITV1 HD will be launching from 2nd April, giving access to watch World Cup matches live in HD, as well as other major ITV shows such as Law and Order: UK, The Prisoner, Foyles War, Lewis, Survival with Ray Mears, and Britain’s Got Talent.

Hallmark Channel HD will be launching on the 28th June, and will showcase a range of its most popular titles in HD for the first time, including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Without A Trace.

Sky Sports HD 4 will be launching on the 29th April, and will enable Sky Sports to build on its 9,200 hours a year of live sport in HD. This year will be the busiest ever for HD content on Sky Sports, with the schedule including The Ryder Cup, The Ashes, Barclays Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Heineken Cup and Guinness Premiership rugby plus US Open tennis.

Sky has updated their website today and have started providing high definition set top boxes as standard to all new and existing customers upgrading to Sky+.

From today, new or existing customers upgrading to Sky+ will receive an HD box as the standard offering.

The prices will are as follows:
New Customers
Free Sky+HD box and Free Installation when you take the HD Pack at £10 per month.
or
£49 for the Sky+HD box with £30 installation without the HD Pack.

Existing Customers
Adding a multiroom box, Free Sky+HD box and £60 installation when you take the HD Pack at £10 per month.
or
Adding a multiroom box, £99 for the Sky+HD box with £60 installation without the HD Pack.
or
Upgrading an existing box, £199 for the Sky+HD box with £60 installation with or without the HD Pack.

Sky have today announced their financial results for the six months up to the end of December.

The results show another powerful increase in the number of customers subscribing to the Sky+ HD service.

An impressive 482,000 households joined the Sky+ HD service during the quarter, more than double the number of additional subscribers for the same period last year, which took the total number of Sky+HD subscribers up to 2,082,000.

Sky+HD customers with Amstrad boxes have begun to receive the new HD EPG.

The update started in March 2009 for Thomson Sky+HD boxes, with Pace and Samsung also getting the update in recent months.

When the update to all amstrad boxes are complete, all Sky+ HD boxes will have received the update.

Sky has reported impressive results for the 3rd quarter of this year with 94,000 new customers joining, taking the total number of subscribers to 9.536 million, including strong growth of its high definition service.

Sky reported that their Sky+ HD service had an additional 287,000 customers joining or upgrading - a three-fold increase from 2008 results, increasing to a total of 1.6m customers.

Sky also reported an increase of 100,000 customers signing up for their broadband and 132,000 signing up for their telephone service.

The number of customers choosing to take all three services (TV, Broadband and Telephone) from Sky also increased by 12% to an impressive 17% of its customers.

Source: Sky Corporate

Sky have this morning began to update another batch of Samsung Sky+ HD boxes to the new HD EPG.

It has been nearly two months since the last batch received the HD EPG, with no news on when the next batch would get it.

However, yesterday, owners of Samsung boxes with version number 973005 reported receiving an email from Sky to let them know that the new HD EPG would soon be arriving.

This morning, owners of this version number are reporting that their boxes have been updated with the new HD EPG.

The BBC has today confirmed that the next series of Top Gear will be shown in High Definition from November 15th this year.

Danielle Nagler, Head of BBC HD, confirmed earlier today, that following receiving requests from viewers for the popular programme to be broadcast in HD, the team are now using HD cameras: "Yes, after several hundred emails from you as to why you feel Top Gear needs to make the journey from the SD to the HD world, I can confirm that the team is now working with HD cameras on the new series".

"You've been very clear that this is a BBC programme that for you represents the best of what we do, and that you believe it is one of those series that can benefit most from HD. I agree with you, and I'm confident that the shift will ensure that the cars are glossier and faster than ever, and the presenters... well, probably will look even more like their reflections in the mirror but we'll all have to wait to judge"

Source: BBC HD Blog

Sky are preparing to send the new HD EPG to 30,000 customers with Samsung Sky+ HD boxes.

Sky is now ready to start contacting 30,000 customers with Samsung boxes about them upgrading to the new EPG.

This morning, the new HD EPG guide has appeared on Sky Anytime TV, and users have reported receiving the HD EPG Guide through the post this morning.

As of 30th June 2009, the number of Sky+ HD customers stood at 1,313,000 (source).

Sky has announced this morning that it now has 1.313m Sky+ HD subscribers.

Earlier this year, Sky announced that as of 31st March 2009, its Sky+ HD subscribers totalled 1.02m customers, meaning that in the 3 months following the previous announcement, Sky has gained a further 293,000 Sky+ HD customers.

Sky has announced that over the last 12 months, they gained a total of 534,000 Sky+ HD customers, meaning a very impressive increase in the last three months.

ESPN has started test transmissions of its new high definition channel on digital satellite.

The HD channel will officially launch at channel 443 on 3rd August 2009.

The channel will broadcast English and Scottish Premier League games, as well as premium US and international sports coverage.

The HD channel is currently testing at:
Frequency:11856
Polarisation:V
Symbol Rate:29.5
FEC:3/4

However, the symbol rate that the channel is using means it cannot be viewed using a Sky+ HD box until Sky add the channel to the EPG.

Sky has told the Digital Spy website that the rollout of its New HD EPG to Sky+ HD boxes is "on schedule".

Sky also said, however, that additional and planned development work is taking place before it is sent to customers with Samsung and Amstrad boxes.

Source: Digital Spy.co.uk

BET HD has launched in the UK, specifically for the BET Awards, which will be shown at 8:30pm on Saturday, July 4th. The broadcast is being marketed as exclusively available to Freesat viewers, however, the channel broadcast can be viewed on a Sky+ HD box.

It can be seen by adding the channel manually. To do this, follow these simple steps:
1) Press "Services"
2) Press "down", then scroll to "ADD CHANNELS"
3) Press "down"
4) Enter frequency: 12.730
5) Set Polarisation to "V"
6) Set Symbol Rate to "27.5"
7) Set FEC to "2/3"
8) Press Yellow
9) Highlight "Freesat HD F6U" and press Yellow
10) Press "Select"

To view the channel, follow these steps:
1) Press "Services"
2) Press "down", then scroll to "OTHER CHANNELS"
3) Press "down"
4) Highlight "Freesat HD F6U" and press "Select"

Yesterday, ESPN bid and won the rights to show 46 Premier League matches in the 2009-10 season and 23 matches in each of the three seasons from 2010-11 to 2012-13.

ESPN also announced plans to launch a HD channel in the UK to show these games on. A carriage and retail agreement for both residential and commercial customers has already been struck with Sky.

"ESPN is pleased to announce that it will broadcast a selection of games from the 2009/10 – 12/13 Premier League seasons live and in high definition" the broadcaster confirmed.

No details have yet been announced on the launch date or the prices for this channel.

Sky have today announced the intention of launching Sky News HD in spring 2010.

The channel will be a simulcast of the existing standard definition channel, Sky News.

Sky News HD will launch in Spring 2010 once its headquarters in West London have been upgraded to provide an HD broadcast capability. In addition, work will also be carried out in some of Sky News' busiest bureaux in the UK and overseas to support HD production.

The news follows the first HD broadcast of Barack Obama's Inauguration in January 2009.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky's Chief Executive, said: "Sky News continues to break new ground in television news and it's only natural for it to become the first UK news channel to launch in HD. It's great news for our Sky+HD customers, giving them access to award-winning breaking news in HD for the very first time and further expanding the choice on offer."

Source: Sky News leads television news into the High Definition age

On Monday 8th June 2009, Sky Arts HD 1 and Sky Arts HD 2 became fully simulcast, mirroring the full schedule of their SD channels.

Prior to this, the two channels time-shared.

Both channels are now broadcasting between the hours of 8am and 2am.

A comment on the Sky website confirms this and comments, saying: "Sky Arts 1 HD will showcase cutting-edge documentaries, cult films and classic concerts, while Sky Arts 2 HD will offer the biggest and best selection of classical music, opera, dance and fine-art programming, all in high definition".

BSkyB has licenced the StormTest product by S3 to automate testing of its Set Top Boxes.

The move will save BSkyB both time and money. Automated testing means there is less need for manual testing by employees which can be expensive, time consuming and error prone.

StormTest can also support remote testing, on-site testing and field testing.

John Geraghty, Head of Conditional Access Services at BSkyB, commented, saying "Sky is committed to finding innovative ways to improve our current operational methodologies and of driving even more value from our product development activity. S3's StormTest was the automated testing solution which best met our needs and we chose the product predominantly for its ease of use, extensibility and ability to seamlessly integrate with our existing test environment."

Source: BSkyB Licences S3's StormTest to Automate Testing of its Set-Top Boxes

The rollout of the new HD EPG has continued its rollout this morning.

Users with a Pace Sky+ HD Box, version numbers 9F3004 and 9F3002, have reported receiving the New HD EPG in the early hours of this morning.

Sky+ HD Users with a Pace Sky+ HD Box, version number 9F3003, have started to receive the New HD EPG.

This follows the completion of the Thomson Sky+ HD box rollout.

The New HD EPG software is also available on the Forced Download stream for Thomson Sky+ HD boxes, so that users with a Thomson box can update to the new HD EPG manually if they have previously missed the update.

In the early hours of this morning, more Sky+HD users received the new HD EPG.

This rollout has updated further versions of the Thomson Sky+ HD box.

It appears that the following version numbers have received the update this morning:

• 4E3004 *
• 4E3006
• 4E3007 *
• 4E3008
• 4E3009
• 4E300C
• 4E3011

* A second attempt on boxes with version numbers 4E3004 and 4E3007 was to update those boxes which may have originally missed the update a month ago.

Sky has today continued the rollout of the new HD EPG to its customers.

Thomson Sky+ HD box users with version number 4E3007 have today woken up to find their boxes have rebooted and have the new HD EPG waiting for them.

On the 10th March 2009, 38,000 Thomson Sky+ HD box users with version number 4E300E were the first to get the new HD EPG.

On the 2nd April 2009, Thomson Sky+ HD box users with version number 4E3004 started to receive the new HD EPG in the early hours of the morning.

Read about the new HD EPG here.

In the last quarter up to 31st March 2009, Sky made an impressing 243,000 additions to customers taking its Sky+ HD service.

The total number of HD customers at 31 March 2009 was 1,022,000.

The launch of the £49 offer for all customers for their first Sky+ HD Box back in January seems to have had a positive effect on these results.

Stephen van Rooyen, Director of Product Management, said "The growth of HD is really starting to take off as more people discover the difference in picture and sound quality. Whether you're a fan of Hollywood movies, Test cricket, dramatic documentaries or operatic arias, you can enjoy more of the things you love in stunning high definition with Sky."

Source: BSkyB - Results for the nine months ended 31 March 2009 (PDF Document)

FX HD is today changing from a dedicated HD channel without commercial breaks into a simulcast channel with its FX UK channel. This move will introduced commercial breaks on the channel for the first time, and the possiblity of upscaled content as well as HD content.

The hours that the channel broadcast will remain the same, but will show the peak time programmes on FX in high definition on FX HD where available.

Season 3 of Dexter also launches tonight on FX HD at 10pm.