Eurocup HD action is free on Italian TV
By Richard Lawler 
posted Apr 9th 2008 5:25AM
posted Apr 9th 2008 5:25AM
RAI is calling itself Italy's "free HDTV pioneer", opting to maintain exclusive broadcast rights for the European Cup instead of selling some of them to Sky Italia's pay service. This means the country's first HDTV broadcasts on digital TV will include every game in the series. Apparently this is a major step in RAI's competition with fellow broadcaster Mediaset, not that we care as long as it means more HD for everyone interested.
The Variety article is in part incorrect:
RAI will test this only in four cities and this will also force users that just bought a DTT STB less than a year ago to buy a new HD-DTT set-top box, currently unavailable in shops.
They are a public service, they charge a license fee (like the BBC in the UK) and as a public service they should provide a wider coverage using one of their many satellite transponders (just like BBC-HD) as a Satellite HD service is already available in Italy.