Intelsat claims largest FTA neighbourhood in US
July 8, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat says that its Galaxy-19 satellite has North America’s largest number of free-to-air channels targeting multi-cultural immigrant communities and faith-based channels.
Intelsat’s Galaxy 19 video neighbourhood is the largest independent TV and radio community in North America, with over 160 multicultural and faith-based channels bringing specialty content from 60 countries and 30 languages directly to viewers. The FTA platform is home to diverse ethnic bouquets from Globecast, STN and MX-1. This year, the content on G-19 has continued to grow, says Intelsat.
Intelsat recently conducted several surveys to better understand the audiences for content on G-19. With programming in 30 languages available on the platform, speakers of each of those languages represent distinct potential audiences.
The Intelsat survey results revealed that 96 per cent of Arabic-speaking households in the US watch Arabic-language programming. Among that group, 40 per cent use G-19 to view Arabic-language programming. In addition to the significant reach of G-19 into the Arabic-speaking community in the US, another compelling metric emerged: among the 40 per cent of households using G-19, there is significant viewership among younger audiences.