Media Broadcast/Towercom extend Astra deal

Media Broadcast/Towercom extend Astra deal

By Chris Dziadul
Published: September 14, 2010 06.42 Europe/London

IBC 2010 – AMSTERDAM. The European full-service provider Media Broadcast and Slovakia’s Towercom have renewed long-standing agreements for the supply of transponder capacity on Astra at 23.5 degrees East.
According to the deal, Towercom will continue renting one complete transponder at Astra 3A, as well as additional DVB-S bandwidth on Astra 3B. The capacity will be used by the leading Czech/Slovak pre-pay DTH platform Skylink, which has over 1.2 million customers. It will also cover signal contribution to DVB-T and cable network headends in the two countries.

Commenting on the deal, Helmut Egenbauer, CEO of Media Broadcast, said: We really appreciate the renewed Towercom-agreement that will ensure a continuous operating grade of our capacities at 23.5 degrees East. This long lasting cooperation significantly contributed to starting and establishing the capitalization of relevant eastern European markets via this specific satellite position.”

Dr Ute Haimerl, head of broadcast satellite services at Media Broadcast, added: “The extension of our portfolio by DVB-S2 services for this satellite position is a true mid-term option to push the further distribution of HDTV content. The capacity agreement comprises a data volume of at least 50 Mbps and thus significantly contributes to a comprehensive filling rate of our transponder capacities at this DTH position with high relevance for Central Eastern Europe.”