A moment the satellite industry has been dreading presented itself this week. Sky Deutschland will soon begin switching off SD channels, in a move which will initiate a ripple effect of DTH closures across Europe. Importantly, the situation is not as simple as a like-for-like replacement of SD for HD. It involves a major restructuring project in which two transponders on the Astra 19.2-degrees East satellite system will be freed up – aka a significant chunk of lost business for Astra owner SES. In addition to 14 SD channel closures, three HD channels – Sky Select HD, Blue Movie HD and Sky 1 +1 HD – are being dropped entirely from the DTH service and content from Sky Select HD…