[Satellite TODAY 06-04-10] Arqiva has launched the Ahl-e-bait channel on the Hot Bird satellite neighborhood with fiber architecture support to audiences in Europe, the company announced June 2. 

Ahl-e-bait, produced in California, carries Persian-language Shiite Muslim cultural content and is the fifth U.S.-based Persian language channel to select Arqiva for program delivery across Europe and the Middle East within the last year. 

“By providing standards conversion to PAL, delivering the feed to the United Kingdom through our dedicated transatlantic fiber, then multiplexing and uplinking it onto the European Hot Bird platform, Arqiva provides a seamless, distribution solution that fits Ahl-e-bait’s programming expansion plan,” Arqiva Satellite and Media Vice President Jon Kirchner said in a statement. 

Separately, Arqiva announced that it would be providing BSkyB with 36MHz of W7 satellite capacity for the duration of the football World Cup in South Africa. This will deliver news coverage from South Africa to Sky’s U.K. facilities for broadcast as Sky News and Sky Sports News.