NTV Plus


NTV Plus is the brand name for the Russian digital satellite television service from NTV, transmitted from Eutelsat's W4 satellite at 36.0°E and from Bonum 1 at 56.0°E. Previously a part of Vladimir Gusinsky's media empire, now it is included in the Gazprom Media holding.

Milestones

1996 - First broadcasts of NTV-Plus appeared on September 1, 1996
1997 - Since early in the year the channels were broadcast in encoded form.
1998 - On November 22 NTV-Plus started satellite TV broadcasting.
1999 - In February NTV-Plus switched from an analogue to digital broadcasting system allowing the expansion of the number of channels from five to fifty. In December NTV-Plus started re-broadcasting digital channels in two languages.
2000 - On May 25 another Eutelsat-W4 satellite was put into orbit allowing the expansion of the broadcasting area.
2005 - Beginning of Dolby Digital 5.1 broadcasting
2006 - Broadcasting begins in Ukraine territory
2007 - Broadcasting in HDTV started
2017 - Broadcasting in 4K/UHD started

Channels

Variety, entertainment

Starting from 2007, NTV Plus offers high-definition television programming. The following channels are offered: HD Kino, HD Sport, HD Life, Eurosport HD, Discovery HD, MTV/Nickelodeon HD, National Geographics HD, Mezzo Live HD.
The content is either produced by NTV Plus itself or received from foreign partners. The programming is delivered in 1080i25 format using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec with 10 Mbit/s data rate. NTV Plus has contracted with France's Thomson to manufacture the receivers that accept signal encoded in MPEG-4.