Sweden's Boxer to launch HD DTT on November 1st

Boxer, part of Swedish government-owned Teracom, will begin digital terrestrial HDTV broadcasting in Sweden on November 1, 2010. Initial coverage will extend to over half of Sweden’s households with a phased roll-out planned to eventually cover virtually the entire country.

Swedish Television’s two main channels – SVT1 and SVT2 – will be broadcast in the clear in HD, along with a number of Boxer’s pay-TV channels.

By the beginning of next year, broadcasting will commence from another 16 stations, in addition to the initial 17 transmitters, extending coverage to about 70 percent of households. Full coverage is expected to be reached in 2012.

Transmissions are in DVB-T2 with MPEG-4 compression. DVB-T2 set top boxes and integrated digital TV receivers have been available in Sweden since September.