The Vebacom AG telecommunications joint venture of Veba AG and Cable & Wireless Plc yesterday announced that it has teamed with German retail group Metro. The joint venture plans to launch digital television in Germany using a decoder developed by Leo Kirch’s Kirch Group. It will be equally-owned and will be neutral and independent of content providers. It is set to enter the market no later than September 1 this year. The Kirch D-box is a rival to the decoder that was developed by the team led by Deutsche Telekom AG and Bertelsmann AG, which Kirch had looked set to accept, even though he regards the D-box as technically superior.
