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[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-30-11] Measat Satellite Systems has signed a further capacity contract for its Measat-3a satellite. It has hooked up a deal with Viacom 18 Media to distribute its channel across Asia, the company announced Nov. 29.
Viacom 18 is a 50/50 joint venture operation in India between Viacom and the Network 18 Group. The joint venture includes leading brands across television, film and digital media. The brands include MTV, NICK, VH1, COLORS and Viacom18 Motion Pictures.
This is one of a slew of deals that Measat has signed this year for capacity on its Measat-3a satellite. In other recent deals, Solar Entertainment signed a renewed deal for capacity on the Measat-3/3a satellites in September. In August, Measat signed an agreement with PT Central Tivi Digital (Centrin TV) to support Centrin TV’s DTH service in Indonesia. Under the agreement, which includes PT Patra Telekomunikasi Indonesia as a local partner, Measat will provide Ku-band capacity on the Measat-3a satellite for the platform. In July, Measat announced that it had reached the landmark figure of 20 HD channels on its platform.
Paul Brown-Kenyon, CEO, Measat Satellite Systems admitted that video will remain the key growth driver for the company. He says, “For Measat, the major growth driver at this time is video. Firstly, the video distribution business is growing with the movement from SD to HD. We have seen a significant uptake in HD, with most new channels launching in HD rather than SD. Secondly, DTH is booming in the region. We are active in three markets, Malaysia, India and Indonesia. Those markets are seeing strong DTH growth, and we are projecting it for the next three to five years.”
The company could need new satellites to serve the demand for video services in the region. Brown-Kenyon says, “We are looking to support our customers, and our customers are looking for more capacity. Hence, we are looking to secure that capacity. The key focus for us at this time is on DTH. We have secured an additional satellite for our 91.5 degrees hot slot, which we will name Measat-3b. It will be a 48 transponder satellite covering four markets. It will be designed to work with Measat-3 and Measat-3a. It will primarily provide additional growth capacity for our anchor DTH customers. It will also allow increase the robustness of our network (with three satellites supporting customers from the same slot) and allow us to expand into a fourth market.”
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