Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 11-11-2014] Media Networks, a wholesale satellite pay TV and broadband service provider, and Cable & Wireless Panama, a major telecommunications company in Panama, have reached an agreement whereby the Panamanian operator launched its new satellite pay TV Direct-to-Home (DTH) service using Media Networks’ wholesale service. The initial proposal of Cable & Wireless offers...

[Via Satellite 11-10-2014] Crystal TV, a leading commercial broadcaster in Ghana, has signed a 10-year contract with Eutelsat for capacity on the Eutelsat 16A satellite. Until now, Crystal TV conducted broadcasts through terrestrial means, but was only able to reach Ghana’s main urban areas in Accra, the Ashanti Region and parts of the country’s Eastern...

[Via Satellite 11-10-2014] Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) and Germany-based Romantis have partnered to create a new Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV platform for coverage in Africa. Current and new broadcasters will be able to use the service package to launch and promote national and regional TV programs across the continent. RSCC and Romantis have a long-term...

[Via Satellite 11-07-2014] Muvi TV, a commercial broadcaster and satellite TV platform in Zambia, is set to expand its business throughout the African continent. The company has renewed and expanded its satellite capacity requirements from Stellar, a German play-out center and satellite uplink facility that leases high-power capacity on Eutelsat Communications’ Eutelsat 7B satellite, to...

[Via Satellite 10-26-2014] The number of pay-TV subscribers is expected to reach 1.1 billion worldwide by 2019, according to ABI Research. Growth in this sector has not been easy as competition from online services increasingly chips away would-be subscribers. Alternative viewing options such as Netflix and Hulu are driving lower Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)...

[Via Satellite 10-28-2014] Foxtel has entered a new five-year agreement with Australia-based Optus Satellite for capacity on the Optus D3 satellite. The company will broadcast nine new High Definition (HD) channels, accessible by customers with an IQ2 or MyStarHD Set Top Box (STB) service and an HD subscription. Optus D3 is the only satellite in...

[Via Satellite 10-20-2014] CMMB Vision is getting ready to offer satellite based mobile multimedia services in China. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics China began using the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcast (CMMB) standard, created by CMMB Vision CTO Hui Liu, for mobile and handheld television. The standard, which bears similarities to Europe’s Digital Video Broadcasting-Satellite to...

[Via Satellite 10-16-2014] OUTtv has selected Spanish satellite operator Hispasat to expand its broadcast range throughout Europe. The channel is currently present in the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, however demand from television operators in Central and Eastern Europe prompted the need for new delivery methods. OUTtv has since reached broadcast agreements in Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia,...

[Via Satellite 10-10-2014] South Africa-based Telemedia and Russia’s Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) have begun broadcasting two television channels for Televisão Publica De Angola (TPA), an Angola government TV organization. The channels, TPA1 and TPA 2, along with select radio channels are being broadcasted using the Yamal 402 southern beam. The new satellite service is also...

[Via Satellite 10-09-2014] ViXS Systems reports its XCode 6400 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) System on a Chip (SoC) is being used in Toshiba’s new Ultra-HD television sets that are being prepared for Sky Perfect JSAT’s 4K broadcasts. The operator, which has a fleet of 16 satellites and approximately 3.5 million subscribers in Japan, has...