Global satellite provider Intelsat has announced a 15-year deal with South African pay-TV provider MultiChoice, adding another satellite to the Intelsat network and expanding the television operator’s direct-to-home (DTH) services.
The new Intelsat 36 satellite is expected to launch in late 2016 and will be co-located with Intelsat 20 at 68.5˚E, the satellite operator’s premier DTH neighborhood in Africa.
“By growing our presence at Intelsat’s 68.5˚E neighborhood, we continue to bring our customers new and innovative services,” said Tim Jacobs, group chief financial officer (CFO) of MultiChoice. “Intelsat’s continued support will enable us to grow our business, providing viewers with high quality programming and compelling entertainment services.”
The satellite will feature Ku- and C- band services, with MultiChoice making use of the Ku-Band payload.
“The C-band payload will provide services to other customers using the premier Intelsat 68.5˚E video neighborhood, which also distributes content to South Asian cable communities,” Intelsat said.
“Our agreement with MultiChoice is a clear demonstration of our mission to partner closely with the leading media and enterprise customers in each region, to understand their network requirements and then create the infrastructure that will support their growth goals,” said Intelsat’s senior vice president of global sales, Kurt Riegelman.
“Since 1965, Intelsat has committed to and invested in Africa’s communications and broadcast infrastructure. This has resulted in robust satellite coverage and Intelsat’s position as the leading provider of satellite services in the region.”
HumanIPO reported in April Multichoice had reached an agreement with Intelsat to expand its capacity on the Intelsat 904 at 60 degrees east satellite to distribute content to terrestrial towers for digital terrestrial television (DTT) services.
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