The broadcaster, which announced this week that its first European HD channel will launch on the German pay-TV operator Premiere in November, has licenced the name Discovery HD Theatre with Ofcom.
Don Baer, senior executive vice president for strategy and development of Discovery Communications told Broadcastthat Discovery was "in conversations with Sky and hopeful" of launching on the platform. Sky is expected to launch its high definition service in April 2006.
The proposed HD channel would be a 24-hour offering featuring culture, travel history wildlife and lifestyle programming.
"Discovery wants to be seen as the home of high definition when it comes to real world factual programming," said Baer. "It is our intention to be the most respected in the area."
Meanwhile, in a bid to promote HD TV, which offers razor sharp picture quality and sound, Discovery has teamed up with hardware manufacturer Samsung Electronics. The plan is to display Discovery content shot in high-definition on over 30,000 Samsung HDTVs in over 40 countries worldwide.
In June 2002, Discovery Communications was one of the first broadcasters in the world to offer a 24-hour high definition network with the launch of Discovery HD Theater in the US.
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