Focus: Broadcasting

SpaceX launched SES’s first C-band satellite on Wednesday in the FCC’s initiative to clear C-band spectrum. A Falcon 9 rocket launched the satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:04 p.m. local time. SES confirmed the launch was successful.  This is the first new C-band satellite for...

TIM, Broadpeak, and Eutelsat have been testing multicast signal distribution over a satellite network in Italy, the companies announced June 27. The testing, delivered through the TimVision Box in Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) multicast mode, was developed in collaboration with Eutelsat, which owns and operates the Konnect satellite dedicated to providing internet services in Europe and...

SES has signed a contract renewal with one of its biggest broadcast customers, Sky UK. The operator announced May 3 that Sky UK has signed a deal worth around 84 million Euros ($88.3 million) to continue to deliver SD, HD, and UHD content for Sky UK’s subscribers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of...

Arabsat ordered a software-defined Geostationary (GEO) satellite from Thales Alenia Space, the regional operator announced April 29.  Arabsat-7A is based on the Thales based on the Space Inspire platform, which allows the operator to reconfigure satellite services while in orbit to adjust to demand. It will provide connectivity to support broadband and video broadcasting.  The...

Intelsat announced Thursday it is launching VideoNow, a new electronic program guide to help viewers looking for free-to-air (FTA) content on direct-to-home (DTH) platforms. VideoNow is produced in conjunction with EasyBroadcast. Galaxy 19 (G-19), a multicultural and ethnic-content neighborhood over North America is the first Intelsat satellite to be included in the service. G-19 delivers...

Intelsat is introducing Cloud Connect Media to give programmers secure access between the IntelsatOne Media Network and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The service is designed to give content providers a private, secure gateway between AWS and the Intelsat global media distribution network. Intelsat is an AWS Select Partner in the AWS Partner Network.  Cloud Connect...

Thaicom is the latest satellite player to sign a deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as it looks to deploy a cloud-based satellite TV broadcast distribution platform for the Asia Pacific region. The two companies signed a contract on March 31 to manage a broadcast platform consisting of cloud services providing software-defined encoding, transcoding, and...

QVC UK will continue to broadcast on SES satellites after the two companies signed a five-year contract renewal. In an announcement released April 4, SES said that the deal will see the operator carry QVC, QVC Beauty, QVC Extra and QVC Style channels over its satellites at the 28.2 degrees and 28.5 degrees East orbital...

ABS has won a new multi-year capacity deal with Taiwanese service provider Teleport Access Service (TAS), the company announced March 29. TAS will distribute Buddhism-based channel Hwazan TV on the ABS-2 Southern beam MCPC platform across Asia and Buddhist communities within this region. Launched in 2003, Hwazan Satellite TV is a satellite channel that broadcasts...

Intelsat is establishing a new satellite video neighborhood in Brazil by “seeding” antennas at more than 200 cable headends in Brazil. The satellite operator is working in cooperation with local vendor, Z2Gtech, for the work.  Intelsat announced Wednesday that the antenna seeding installation program is creating a new video neighborhood on Intelsat 14 (IS-14), positioned...