Focus: Broadcasting

French state-owned news television network France 24 has renewed a multi-year service agreement with Asia Satellite Telecommunications (AsiaSat) for capacity on AsiaSat 5. This agreement will continue distribution of France 24’s HD and SD television services in the Asia-Pacific. France 24’s English-language news channel began broadcasting via AsiaSat 5 in 2009 and extended to the...

One of the Asia’s biggest satellite pay-TV operators has unveiled new hardware that works without a satellite dish. Astro, the leading DTH player in Malaysia announced July 22, that it had released a new ‘Ultra Plug & Play’ box, which works without a satellite dish, and should reduce rain fade issues. This new hardware enables...

AT&T is leaving the satellite pay-TV business in Latin America. The company announced yesterday that Grupo Werthein, a private Argentinean company, is acquiring a 100% stake in Vrio, a company with 10.3 million subscribers across 11 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Vrio provides live and on-demand video services via DIRECTV Latin America, SKY...

SES has won a new capacity deal which sees one of Germany’s most famous media brands become a TV channel for the first time. The company announced that WeltN24, a subsidiary of Axel Springer will be launching a new FTA HD channel – BILD – in August via SES’s Astra neighborhood at 19.2 degrees East...

Forsway and KenCast are looking to boost their position in the broadcast market thanks to a new combination of the two companies’ products and technology. Under the terms of a new partnership contract announced July 19, KenCast’s Fazzt multicast content delivery system will be delivered on Forsway’s Odin F-50 satellite modem and Xtend satellite platform....

A record number of satellites were launched into orbit in 2020, according to the Satellite Industry Association’s (SIA) State of the Satellite Industry Report. By the end of 2020, there were 3,371 satellites orbiting Earth, an increase of 37% from 2019. The commercial satellite industry dominates the $371 billion global space economy, making up $271...

Spacecom has signed an extension deal worth $14 million with D.B.S. Satellite Services, which operates Yes DTH in Israel. Yes will continue to lease capacity from the AMOS-7 and AMOS-3 satellites at Spacecom’s 4 degrees West orbital hotspot. Yes is the sole direct broadcast satellite television provider in Israel. The Israeli satellite operator said in...

Spacecom has an extension capacity deal in Hungary worth close to $9 million. The company announced July 5 that T-Home DTH, a Direct-to-Home (DTH) provider in Hungary and a brand of Magyar Telekom, the principal provider of telecom services in Hungary, has signed an extension deal for capacity on the AMOS-3 satellite until the end...

SES has signed a new capacity deal with a German media/music broadcaster, the company announced June 24. High View, an independent Munich-based media company, has extended its partnership with SES in a new multi-year contract and secured long-term satellite capacity. Its Deluxe Music channel will now continue broadcasting on SES’s satellites in SD and HD at its prime...

SES has renewed a key deal with Comcast Technology Solutions. The company announced, June 15 that it will continue delivering CTS’s Managed Satellite Distribution service, formerly known as Headend in the Sky (HITS), that reaches hundreds of multichannel video programming distributor systems across the U.S. CTS is a division of Comcast Cable that provides media...