Samsung Electronics from South Korea and US-based cable TV company Discovery Communications said on Thursday they had started a global partnership to market high definition television (HDTV).
"(It's) the first ever world-wide partnership between a hardware manufacturer and a global content company to accelerate the adoption of HDTV and content," Don Baer, senior executive vice president at Discovery, said at the IFA electronics fair.
Samsung will display Discovery content shot in high definition on more than 30,000 Samsung HDTV sets in over 40 countries, including the United States, the firms said.
The partnership is the second alliance in as many days between a hardware vendor and a media company.
Germany's pay TV company Premiere on Wednesday announced a partnership with Philips Electronics from the Netherlands to promote its first German HDTV channels that start in November on Philips TV sets.
TV set producers, gathered at the world's biggest consumer electronics show here, hope that HDTV will boost replacement sales of televisions. HDTV sets can show five times more picture detail than current standard definition TV sets.
HDTV broadcasting is only taking off now in Europe, lagging several years behind the United States, Japan and South Korea. Discovery claims it is the most popular HDTV channel in the United States. Its content will also be made available in Germany on Premiere's channels, Baer said.
Discovery is 50-50 owned by Discovery Holdings and US cable operator Cox Communications.
Samsung has already announced a marketing partnership with US-based software giant Microsoft to be the recommended HDTV set for Microsoft's new games console Xbox 360, which features a faster processor for better picture quality.
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