Sky Sport News HD studio. Photo: Sky

[Via Satellite 12-01-2016] SES announced that its wholly owned subsidiary MX1 will assist pay-TV provider Sky in taking its first steps into Free-To-Air (FTA) TV in Germany and Austria, by introducing Sky Sport News to audiences in these two markets.

Starting on today, the 24-hour High Definition (HD) sport news channel Sky Sport News HD will be FTA via satellite. In addition, Sky has contracted additional SES satellite capacity to also broadcast the channel in Standard Definition (SD). This provides Sky with access to more than 20 million households in Germany and Austria through Aatra satellites. MX1 delivers the technical services, including uplink, signal encoding, and the transmission via Astra 19.2 degrees east.