NTV-PLUS, Eutelsat strengthen relationship
April 3, 2017
NTV-PLUS, Russia’s original premium pay-TV platform, has consolidated its coverage across Siberia and extended broadcasting into the country’s Far East following the conclusion of contracts on two satellites with long-standing partner, Eutelsat Communications.
With the launch of new services on 1 April, NTV-PLUS is achieving its objective of full coverage of the Russian Federation, enabling viewers across the country to benefit from the diversity and quality of digital TV. This new wave of expansion follows approvals earlier this year from Russia’s Federal Tender Commission for NTV-PLUS to extend its broadcasting footprint as far as the Pacific Coast.
NTV-PLUS has signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract with Eutelsat covering the Express-AT2 satellite at 140 degrees East to reach homes in Far East Russia and incremental capacity on the Express-AT1 satellite at 56 degrees East to consolidate its coverage of Siberia. Launched with Eutelsat over 20 years ago, NTV-PLUS today offers subscribers more than 240 special-interest channels including a growing stable of High Definition content. Its offer includes 42 channels produced by Gazprom Media with a strong focus on exclusive premium sport across 11 channels.
“Our mutual goal is to establish highest standards of modern satellite TV,” advised Mikhail Demin, CEO of NTV-PLUS. “Today NTV Plus covers 100 per cent of the Russian territory with more than 145 million population. For us this expansion is not only business ambition but also is a great social mission which we are honoured to implement with our partner Eutelsat.”
“We are delighted to pursue more than two decades of collaboration with NTV-PLUS and to see the unique value of satellites for delivering nationwide coverage of the Russian Federation in order to offer digital TV to all homes irrespective of their location,” added Rodolphe Belmer, Eutelsat CEO.
Separately, Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, confirmed that it had been selected by NTV Broadcasting Company to broadcast NTV MIR TV, the international version of NTV, to cable and DTH homes across Europe.
Globecast is providing fibre connectivity via its Globecast Backbone Network for the channel to be delivered from Moscow to its Paris location, where the signals are then uplinked to Eutelsat’s HOTBIRD position at 13 degrees East (transponder 126).
NTV MIR TV joins a neighbourhood of 38 Russian-speaking channels at the popular HOTBIRD position, of which 28 are available free-to-air. Broadcasting in MPEG-2 SD, the channel offers a mix of news and documentaries, as well as entertainment content and sports.
Globecast already broadcasts Channel One and RTR PLANETA (Group VGTRK) and broadcasts NTV MIR across Asia via AsiaSat 5 and it says the agreement with NTV positions it as the preferred choice for Russian broadcasters to extend their international footprint.
“We’re delighted that NTV Group has once again called on us to distribute its content, this time across Europe, declared Biliana Pumpalovic, General Director of Globecast in Moscow. “Eutelsat’s HOTBIRD neighbourhood, with its strong Russian line-up, was the obvious choice for us and makes it easy for NTV MIR to increase its cable and DTH audience across a vast footprint. This deal also illustrates what Globecast does best, which is deliver content to a new audience cost-effectively.”