SES To Broadcast HD BBC Global News Channel

BBC Global News signed a long-term agreement to broadcast its international news channel free-to-air in HD on SES' Astra at 19.2 degrees east on a multiplex operated and uplinked by SES starting Wednesday, SES said in a news release Wednesday. The channel is an HD version of BBC World News in English, SES said. More than 47 million people watch HDTV in about 52 percent of European satellite homes, it said. SES broadcasts more than 1,800 HD channels globally and more than 500 in Europe in 2014, it said.