First Bully in 3D

Entertain presents the opening game of the 2010 Ice Hockey World Championship in 3D

The broadcast was live – this wasn’t some lab experiment, or test,« points out Christian P. Illek, Marketing Director of Telekom Deutschland. For this event, which made the third dimension of television accessible to broad sections of the population for the first time, Gemany’s largest telecommunications company cooperated with Constantin Medien AG and Constantin’s subsidiaries SPORT1, PLAZAMEDIA and Constantin Sport Medien. Bernhard Burgener, CEO of Constantin Medien, is convinced of the sustainable impression made by the broadcast: »Television viewers will always remember the opening match in three dimensions. With this innovative and complex production of a global sporting event, we are positioning ourselves as a provider of forward-looking production technologies already today.«
»Never before has an ice hockey match been broadcast live in 3D and HD in Europe,« adds Florian Nowosad, CEO of PLAZAMEDIA. »Technically it’s especially challenging in this case because the play is extremely fast and the puck is difficult to make out.« The opening game of the 2010 IIHF World Championship was broadcast on the channel LIGA total!. All HD subscribers were able to follow the game at no additional cost, and free of advertising.

The television of the future

Entertain is Deutsche Telekom’s largest television product, and broadcasts the televi-sion signal by way of DSL cable via internet protocol. A receiver picks up the signal, and displays the picture of the television. The IPTV platform offers more than 120 different channels: These consist of all regular public law and private broadcasters, as well as many special interest programs. In addition, Entertain customers automatically have a telephone flat rate and a DSL internet connection.
The signal broadcast via DSL cable furthermore enables numerous innovative functions: By pressing the pause button, the viewer can simply pause a program, and then continue watching when it suits. Recording television programs on the internal hard drive is also possible with the simple push of a button – even worldwide, with a PC or internet-capable mobile. There is even a dedicated application for iPhones and mobiles with Android operating systems. An electronic program guide (EPG) displays to the viewer the entire program guide for the coming two to three weeks. As well as that, there’s something for the ears, too: Entertain customers can receive around 2,500 national and international radio channels over the receiver.

Interactive HD

Entertain offers a great deal of HD content, both in the form of live television and access to the online video library. »We are going on the offensive with regard to HD, and offering HD content on demand,« explains Christian P. Illek. »With technical coverage of more than 20 million households, Entertain is the largest TV platform for HD content in Germany. We’ll continue to steadily expand our product range – both in terms of the channels on offer, and the online video library.« That online video library contains around 10,000 titles, of which more than 1,000 are in HD quality. These include exclusive highlights, current blockbusters, new episodes of current US series and exciting documentaries. Football fans are also well looked after by Entertain. The Bundesliga channel LIGA total! broadcasts all games in Germany’s Bundesliga and second Bundesliga live, either in conference feed or on demand, and all first league games are also broadcast in HD. The return channel capabilities allow Entertain customers to use numerous innovative and interactive functions any time, at the push of a button.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world‘s leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 150 million mobile customers, approximately 38 million fixed-network lines and more than 15 million broadband lines (as at March 31, 2010). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in over 50 countries and has more than 258,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 64.6 billion in the 2009 financial year - almost half of it outside Germany (as at December 31, 2009).

Telekom Deutschland GmbH