Hotbird neighborhood coverage. Photo: Eutelsat.

Eutelsat Communications announced that Sat.tv, its mobile program guide, is expanding to include Free-to-Air (FTA) channels broadcasting from its 7/8 degrees west neighborhood. Sat.tv was launched in April 2016, targeting the 65 million homes equipped for Direct-to-Home (DTH) reception from Eutelsat’s Hotbird neighborhood. The app has already registered almost 1 million downloads and is now available to the more than 52 million DTH-equipped homes in the Middle East and North Africa that receive FTA channels from 7/8 degrees west.

Sat.tv now gives viewers in the Middle East and North Africa the opportunity to browse through the program schedules of around 400 free-to-air channels, with options to search by time, channel or type of content. According to Intelsat, viewers benefit from a user-friendly program guide interface available in five languages (Arabic, English, French, Italian, Russian) and can access program details in up to 40 languages.

Eutelsat said Sat.tv has already seen strong take-up in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran, with users particularly drawn by the option to select preferred content in one click and to receive personalized recommendations.