Intelsat and BT win BBC business
June 1, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat is working with BT Group to distribute BBC World Service over the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America.
Under the new multi-year, multi-transponder agreement, BT will leverage capacity from three of Intelsat’s leading satellite neighbourhoods to distribute programming for BBC World Service, a premier provider of global news and content. BT will have access to Intelsat’s teleport facility in Napa, California along with the company’s terrestrial fibre network, IntelsatOne.
Three Intelsat satellites will be used: Intelsat 10-02 located at 1°W, Intelsat 805 at 55.5°W and Intelsat 19 at 166.0°E, combined with BT’s service offerings, will allow BBC World Service to increase its channel line-up and continue access to millions of listeners and viewers throughout Asia Pacific, Africa and the Americas.
“Intelsat and BT have a long and proven track record of leveraging each other’s technical strengths to help advance our customers’ business and growth objectives,” said Mark Wilson-Dunn, VP/BT Media & Broadcast.
Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution, BBC World Service, added, “In today’s information age, our viewers want fast-breaking, high quality and reliable content at all times regardless of location. By partnering with BT and Intelsat, we know that we will receive a seamless, integrated solution and distribution platforms that enable us to reliably reach our audience around the world.”
“BBC World Service has very specific requirements as it relates to its global programming needs, including optimizing its distribution and overall operational efficiency. By combining our distribution network with BT’s service offerings, we created a solution that provides BBC World Service with international distribution that serves its global audience, and supports its growth objectives,” said Kurt Riegelman, Intelsat’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing. “BBC World Service premier content contributes to the nearly 5,500 SD and HD channels distributed across our fleet and can be accessed by tens of millions of viewers across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America through our media neighbourhoods.”