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Tele Danmark Kabel TV ready to launch digital decoder

February 9, 1998

Improved facilities for putting together your own personal TV menu are just one example of the exciting perspectives of Selector, the digital decoder which Tele Danmark Kabel TV launches today.

Selector is more than just a decoder as they are known today. Not only does it provide access to pay TV; it also has a range of facilities which add to the potential of the TV.

The electronic TV Guide is one of the new interactive functions - called ITV services - incorporated in Selector, which will facilitate finding a programme you wish to watch. Press the remote control once and you will immediately have a view of all TV channels on the cable network. You choose whether you wish to search within a certain genre, a specific period or your favourite programmes.

Among the other ITV services you find a detailed weather forecast, twelve free music pro-grammes and several TV games. You can also leaf through catalogues from the Ellos mail order firm and see what BILLETnet has to offer within theatre and other cultural events. In the course of 1998 it will further become possible to order products from the catalogues and to reserve theatre and train tickets via the TV screen, and you will be able to send and receive e-mail.

The digital technology makes it possible to send far more TV programmes through the existing cables. This can be utilized with Selector which is the key to several TV and radio programme packages which are not already available on the cable network.

You can supplement your normal cable TV package with programme packages in specific languages such as Turkish and Arabian, or with packages of, say, news and children's TV channels. You can also rent a film, pretty much when it suits you. - The increase in facilities does not necessarily mean that we will have to spend more time in front of the TV but only that we can watch exactly what we are interested in. At the same time the decoder makes it easy to pilot through the programmes. It will be a more selective way of watching TV, says Per John Jensen, Senior Vice President, Tele Danmark Kabel TV.

Selector is based on the standard chosen by ECCA, the European Cable Communications Association, which means that Tele Danmark Kabel TV's customers are sure of having a product with a European seal of approval.

It costs DKK 60 a month to lease Selector, or DKK 49 if you subscribe to the digital programme packages or pay-TV programmes too. You need not invest in a new TV. On the contrary, you will get better picture and sound on the old set. Cable TV customers without a decoder can receive the same channels as before. - Tele Danmark Kabel TV is among the pioneers in the digital decoder market. There-fore, it is difficult to predict the extent of the interest in Selector. A conservative estimate is that we will be leasing between 35,000 and 50,000 Selectors by the end of the year. Selector is a strategic and long-term investment and we do not doubt that it will become popular. Still, the running-in period is hard to predict. A product like Selector is totally unknown among the Danes so it will take long before everybody realizes the potential of Selector, says Per John Jensen.