South African subscription broadcaster MultiChoice has signed a long-term agreement with fixed satellite services provider Intelsat.
The deal, for an undisclosed amount, gives the subscription provider access to a satellite, which is only set to be launched in 2012, and extends its current contract on the Intelsat 7 satellite, expanding its capacity.
The agreement is a long-term, multi-transponder deal for satellite capacity through Intelsat 20 (IS-20) and spans the 15-year expected life of IS-20. It also provides restoration capacity, which is expected to result in a more robust network platform. MultiChoice has an existing contract on the Intelsat 7 satellite, at 68.5º E.
The IS-20 satellite will also replace the Intelsat 10 satellite and provide services to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and India. Its Ku-band payload is designed to provide enterprise network and direct-to-home television services into Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Both the companies collaborated on the design of the South African Ku-band payload for IS-20, which will improve the signal reception power for MultiChoice's more than 2.6 million DSTV customers in SA, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.
Nico Meyer, MultiChoice CFO, says the “growth our business is experiencing is fuelled by new content combined with the best technology”. The companies have partnered for almost two decades, he adds.
Two years ago, MultiChoice selected Intelsat to support its mobile broadcast TV trial in the metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria and Cape Town.
The trial sought to refine the transmission of digital video broadcasting to handheld technology, as well as understand more about the viewing patterns and content preferences of subscribers for mobile TV.
“This contract provides us with the transmission services we require to grow our programming platform and expand our subscriber base, and gives us the business continuity we need to provide the highest quality service to our subscribers for years to come,” Meyer says.
Intelsat, which carries over 160 high-definition channels, delivered the first digital HD transmission between the US and Japan in April 1989.
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