The Africasat-1a satellite is scheduled for an early 2013 launch and is designed to deliver coverage across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The new MCPC platform aims to provide full TV and radio coverage to the African continent and offer cost-effective DVB-S2 capacity.

"In order to meet the increased needs of the fast growing African broadcast television market, we will launch a new C-band MCPC platform on Africasat-1a, that is able to cost-effectively bring content from Europe, Asia and the Americas for C-band contribution and distribution to Africa,” RRsat Senior Director of US Sales and Operations Yaniv Lior said in a statement. “This platform will provide leading TV and radio channels the opportunity to reach new audiences across the continent, based on the RRsat Global Network.”