Tricolor TV begins broadcasting of Ultra HD package

Wednesday, November 18th, 2015
Tricolor TV logo

«Tricolor TV» Was the First in Russia to Launch the Ultra HD TV Channel Package

  • The largest Russian Pay TV operator was among the first in the world to broadcast the 4K Ultra HD TV channel package

On November 15, 2015, «Tricolor TV» has started to broadcast the Ultra HD package, which included two new ultra high-definition TV channels: TRICOLOR ULTRA HD and INSIGHT UHD. Subscribers of «Tricolor TV» will get the access to movies and documentaries, as well as sports and entertainment programs broadcasted in 4K at no extra charge.

The channels of the package are broadcasted at 3840×2160 resolution with the image transmission rate of 50 frames a second. For comparison: SD TV channel resolution is 720×576, and HD TV channel resolution is 1920×1080. The HEVC/H.265 coding standard is used for compression of digital video.

Alexey Kholodov, Chief Communication Officer, Tricolor TV: “We have coincidentally launched 4K TV channels in November 2015, in the days of celebration of the 10th anniversary of the company. The start of full-size HDTV broadcasting is a beginning of a new decade of activities of «Tricolor TV» and a new age of the Russian digital TV market.”

TRICOLOR ULTRA HD is a 24/7 4K movie channel launched by «Tricolor TV» for the mixed audience 16+. Full length movies, made both in Russia and abroad, will be primarily shown on this channel. Genre movies will be a major part of the content. 3 original exhibitions a day and repeated exhibitions of the content of two previous days will make the core of the broadcast schedule. Number of hours of the content to be purchased: 100–140 movies a year.

The INSIGHT UHD TV channel (company TERN, the Netherlands) distributed by 1HDTV is targeted at the 18 to 45 audience. Innovative documentaries, reality shows, extreme travels and sports, interactive projects are main trends of its content. INSIGHT UHD took the place of the ULTRA HD 4K pilot TV channel regularly broadcasted by «Tricolor TV» since October 22, 2014.

Nikolay Orlov, General Director of 1HDTV: “One of the main tasks of the television business is to move with the times, to be at the forefront of the worldwide progress in the industry. This project meets the requirements of current users to the maximum extent possible. It is important for us that «Tricolor TV», the largest Russian operator, our long-term partner, is the first to launch the channel. We shall open a new page in the history of pay-TV together.”

In accordance with the information of the J’son & Partners Consulting research agency, Pay TV operators or OTT companies launching UHD services can expect for an extremely loyal and solvent audience including 260 thousand subscriber homes, where the subscribers keep in possession or are ready to purchase 4K TV sets and receiving equipment supporting HEVC/H.265 video compression standard, already in 2016, provided that relevant growth rates are kept steady.

In accordance with the forecast of the Parks Associates agency, by the end of 2019 worldwide sales of 4K Ultra HD TV sets will reach 330 million pcs.

The access to 4K TV channels during the test broadcasting will be granted to subscribers of «Tricolor TV», owners of the following receiving equipment: the TV set with Ultra HD marketing code and with the support of the Conditional Access Module CI+, as well as the single CI+ module (at no extra charge, if the «Edinyi» service is used). The new service can be activated in three ways: in the user’s account profile, by sending SMS or by contacting the operator of the Subscriber Support.

Moreover, ultra high-definition TV channels will be available for viewing with the use of UHDTV supporting TV-tuners. The equipment recommended includes the GS A230 server tuner (General Satellite brand), first Russian digital TV tuner supporting 4K. It is manufactured by the GS Group investment and industry holding company (technological partner of «Tricolor TV»). GS A230 is equipped with the built-in Wi-Fi module for wireless connection to the home IP network and transfer of content to client devices (smart phone or tablet running iOS or Android OS and the game console GS Gamekit) inside a subscriber home. The new device can also broadcast the video content on the screen of another TV set with the use of the client tuner GS C5911.

The tuner has the built-in 1Tb hard disk drive, which grants the access to PVR smart features (recording of content on the HDD) and TimeShift («postponed viewing»). The upgraded interactive platform Stingray TV has a friendly graphical user interface and supports the following popular services: application «Kinozaly «Tricolor TV», smart electronic program guide (EPG) DRE Guide, broadcasting backup («mirror streaming») and viewing of independent content of mobile devices with the use of the application «Play. Tricolor».