Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 08-19-2014] After an auction held in May, Anatel, Brazil’s national telecommunications agency, has approved satellite exploitation rights to SES-subsidiary SES DTH do Brasil’s for orbital positions at 48 degrees west and 64 degrees west. SES invested more than $26 million for the locations, which the company now has rights to for 15 years...

[Via Satellite 08-18-2014] In a new agreement with the Africable and Media Plus-led consortium of West African broadcasters, SES will provide satellite capacity on two transponders for Direct-to-Home (DTH) television. SES will offer a bouquet of 80 Free-to-Air (FTA) channels to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (also known by the French acronym UEMOA)....

[Via Satellite 08-12-2014] NovelSat conducted a successful trial of its “free bandwidth” product, NovelSat Freeband at the Rede Novo Tempo de Comunicação broadcast center in Brazil. The trial was conducted with Hope Channel, the broadcasting arm of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. NovelSat reports 56 percent of extra bandwidth resulted from the trial, enabling the customer...

[Via Satellite 08-11-2014] Azercosmos Open Joint Stock Company, the state-owned satellite operator of Azerbaijan, has signed an agreement with Afghan Paiwastoon Media Communication (APMC) to broadcast Batur TV. The Free-to-Air (FTA) channel will broadcast over Azerspace 1 at 46 degrees east. APMC  began using Azercosmos’ satellite on an occassional use basis during Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential...

[Via Satellite 08-11-2014] Japanese Public Broadcaster NHK plans to demonstrate its latest achievement with 8K Super Hi-Vision television: a complete end-to-end high frame system. The very high-resolution system runs at a frame rate of 120 frames per second (fps) — nearly double that of current 4K Ultra-HD technology —and has 16 times the resolution of...

[Via Satellite 08-08-2014] RRSat Global Communications Network has expanded its sales team in North and South America. Rick Phelps has been appointed U.S. director of sales, where he is tasked with overseeing new business and client relationships. Dante Neyra was selected as head of commercial services and development for Latin America and Hispanic markets. He...

[Via Satellite 08-06-2014] Prime Electronics & Satellitics and Entropic have unveiled a single-chip, three-tuner analog Channel Stacking Switch (CSS) Low Noise Block (LNB) converter capable of tripling the distribution of satellite signals from a satellite receiver. The new LNB enables Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS) operators to distribute more content from a single-cable run. This is...

[Via Satellite 08-01-2014] Pilipinas Global Network Limited (PGN Limited) has entered an agreement with Measat for capacity on the Measat 3 satellite. PGN Limited, a joint venture between Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and major Philippine terrestrial channel provider ABC Development Corporation (ABC5), intends to expand internationally via satellite, increasing its distribution to more...

[Via Satellite 07-30-2014] The number of Direct-to-Home (DTH) subscribers in Asia is set to nearly double between 2013 and 2018. This was one of the key findings of a major new report by Media Partners Asia (MPA). MPA predicts that DTH numbers in Asia will reach 110 million by 2018, up from 56.3 million in...

[Via Satellite 07-30-2014] MultiChoice Africa has purchased the entire 15 Ku-band transponder payload on Eutelsat’s upcoming satellite Eutelsat 36C. The satellite is scheduled to launch in 2015. MultiChoice plans to use the capacity for Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) channels, along with in-orbit back-up capacity for network continuity. The 15-year agreement provides a...