Nov 13 2007
TELSTRA has signed an agreement with China Netcom and the Seven Network to carry live images of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Australia.
The telco will monitor the international broadcast feeds as they travel from Beijing across more than 15,000km of submarine optic fibre cable, to the Seven Network studios in Australia.
It will use two fibre optic cable links from China to Australia - one via Tokyo and another via Hong Kong.
It will be the first Olympic Games to be shown in Australia in high definition.
The high resolution of HD broadcasts will mean a substantial increase in the volume of data relayed to Australia.
"Telstra owns one of the most technologically advanced IP global backbones in the world that has the bandwidth to deliver both high definition and standard definition images for TV transmission," Telstra International's managing director, Drew Kelton, said.
Research conducted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority revealed the household penetration of digital free-to-air television is at 30 per cent, while a report by Sony and retail analyst GfK showed HD product sales in the second quarter of 2007 nearly doubled on the same period last year.