Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 10-29-2015] Telecommunications operator Entel Bolivia has deployed an integrated headend solution from Harmonic to power its Direct-Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service. Harmonic is supplying its Electra encoders for MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) encoding and DiviTrackIP statistical multiplexing of SD and HD video content. Using Harmonic’s high-density, scalable video infrastructure solutions, Entel Bolivia can...

[Via Satellite 10-28-2015] The October/November issue of Via Satellite Magazine is out, and in it we take a look at ways satellite is being used in the energy sector, broadcasting in India, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, each of these fields is in flux. Declining oil prices are leading energy companies to discover...

[Via Satellite 10-28-2015] Lifestyle content producer Scripps Networks Interactive has signed a strategic agreement with SES to expand and migrate its North American distribution platform to a pair of SES satellites at the center of the North American orbital arc. Scripps Networks Interactive is using a full transponder of C-band capacity on SES 1 to...

[Via Satellite 10-26-2015] AT&T is already seeing the benefits of its merger with U.S. satellite pay-TV giant DirecTV. The telco completed the acquisition in July, after agreeing to certain four-year conditions from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). On the company’s 2015 third quarter earnings call — the first following the acquisition — Senior Vice President...

[Via Satellite 10-26-2015] Yahlive has signed a one-transponder capacity deal with Adriatic Tours, owner of Alpha One RTV Network, and reached a collaborative agreement to broadcast channels to the Balkan communities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in eight languages: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Albanian, Turkish, Spanish, English, and Arabic. Yahlive viewers in the...

[Via Satellite 10-26-2015] Bollywood film and television network B4U has increased the number of channels broadcasting on AsiaSat 7 with the addition of B4U Movies Asia Pacific. B4U currently broadcasts two Bollywood Indian entertainment channels, B4U Movies and B4U Music, in the Hindi language via AsiaSat 7 at 105.5 degrees east. From this location, the...

[Via Satellite 10-22-2015] AsiaSat has launched 4K-SAT, the operator’s first Ultra-HD television channel, at 122 degrees east on AsiaSat 4. This new Ultra-HD channel will be available Free-to-Air (FTA) across more than 50 countries and regions within AsiaSat 4’s footprint, spanning from New Zealand to Pakistan and part of the Middle East. Television operators and...

India is the world’s most exciting DTH market with a number of operators now having more than 10 million subscribers. The middle class is growing, demand for capacity is high, and the country is already seeing broadcasts in Ultra-HD. This is a market on the precipice of another significant growth phase.

[Via Satellite 10-13-2015] TV5Monde, a leading global French-language broadcaster, is watching developments in Ultra-HD but has no plans to implement such broadcasts until it meets its goals with High Definition (HD). The company reaches nearly 300 million homes in 197 countries and, according to CEO Yves Bigot, has a larger household audience now than ever...

[Via Satellite 10-09-2015] Orion Express, one of the top satellite communications providers in Russia, has transferred all the Standard Definition (SD) channels for Russian broadcaster Viasat to its media platform on Intelsat 15. The channels, formerly on Asia Broadcast Satellite’s ABS 2 satellite, were broadcast on both ABS 2 and Intelsat 15 in parallel until...