Germany's second largest cable operator Unitymedia will add five HDTV channels from German commercial broadcaster Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland to its cable network in federal states North-Rhine Westphalia and Hessen. The carriage contract has now been signed, RTL announced in Cologne. RTL HD, VOX HD and RTL II HD are available to cable households with a digital cable subscription from now on. For reception, they need HD-compliant hardware and they need to be signed up to the HD option. Super RTL HD and pay-TV channel RTL Crime HD - which will become available in high-definition for the first time - will follow in May 2012. Unitymedia has been distributing the HD channels of competing commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 since 15 November 2011.