SES Astra launched broadcasts of the German-French channel Arte high definition (HD) for the first time in Germany, SES Astra announced.

“We recently succeeded in showing some important HDTV events in France, but it is the first time that Arte provides the German TV viewers with such a high quality program,” Gottfried Langenstein, vice president of Arte, said in a statement. “We are very happy to share this exciting moment with our long-term partner SES Astra and we hope to be able to provide more HD programs to our viewers in the near future.”