Ericsson Brings Terrestrial HDTV to Finland

DNA, Finland’s largest cable TV operator with a 43 percent market share, has signed a new agreement with Ericsson that will make the HDTV experience available for 60% of all Finnish digital terrestrial TV households by 2011. The move will make Finnish households among the first in the world to have HDTV through their existing TV antennas.

Ericsson will immediately start the roll-out of the terrestrial HDTV network, which means that 60% of the Finnish households within the aerial network (1.5 million households) will have access to HDTV services at the end of 2011. The service will be available already at the year-end of 2010 in the biggest cities and the surrounding areas.

Charlotta Sund, head of Ericsson Baltic Sea also reflects on statistics done by Finnpanel –  the company that officially measures TV viewing in Finland: “Just last year, about 35 000 – or 1.4 percent – of Finnish households ordered HD channels. Considering that 1.4 percent will grow to 60 percent within a two year period says quite a lot about the great growth potential of the HDTV market. That’s why we’ve invested so much in TV-related technology and services.”

Ericsson is the prime contractor, providing network roll-out and systems integration services as well as maintenance and support services. The technology provided includes products from the Ericsson TV portfolio, including the MPEG-4 AVC HD head-end solution, along with third party products and technology for DVB-T2 HDTV broadcasting.

Pekka Väisänen, vice president, consumer business, at DNA says: “In a recent survey we found that an impressive majority of the Finnish population, 69 percent, want to watch movies in high definition and in the age group 15-19 the number is even higher; 89 percent. There’s no doubt that HDTV is the future.”

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