Advanced Television

iSAT Africa, Eutelsat partner on FTA digital channels

September 12, 2014

iSAT Africa has selected to partner with Eutelsat Communications on free-to-air delivery of African and international digital channels in Kenya and across East Africa in order to accelerate the move towards a fully digital broadcasting environment in the region.

iSAT and Eutelsat will use the high-power African service area of the Eutelsat 70B satellite to broadcast a platform of channels to digital headends and on a DTH basis to homes beyond range of terrestrial reception. Homes receiving the platform on a DTH basis can pick up channels without subscription using a maximum 90cm antenna and a digital free-to-air box that can be purchased off the shelf.

iSAT Africa has also agreed terms with Eutelsat for use of C-band capacity on the Eutelsat 3B satellite for contributing channels to the Nairobi teleport where they can be aggregated into the platform. The C-band footprint on Eutelsat 3B embraces Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America, covering a vast catchment area of broadcasters.

Rakesh Kukreja, MD of iSAT Africa, commented: “We are delighted with our partnership with Eutelsat whereby iSAT provides complete technical platform and system integration for media houses and Eutelsat provides satellite capacity and video expertise. We envisage that media houses in Africa will see digital migration as an opportunity to expand across more territories and therefore increase viewership. This is a great opportunity for any media house to cover the East Africa community and more than 160 million Swahili-speaking people using a single uplink located in Africa. This will allow media houses to outsource technical service delivery and focus on their core business of content management. Eutelsat is a great company to work with as we received full support on both solution and technical fronts.”

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, FTA