BBC Worldwide has signed a distribution deal with Globecast for delivery of its international channel BBC Prime on the Eutelsat Eurobird 9A satellite.
The channel will be distributed via one of the two Globecast transponders on the satellite. The spacecraft, located at 9 degrees East, provides DTH coverage of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, with the potential to reach more than 300 million TV households.
Globecast receives the BBC Prime feed via fibre at its central London Technical Operations Centre and sends it to its Brookmans Park facility where it is uplinked to the satellite.
BBC Prime was previously carried over the Hot Bird satellite. Eutelsat has provided BBC Worldwide and Globecast more than 600 so-called ClipSat devices to distribute to cable and SMATV operators that will enable them to access both Eurobird 9A and Hot Bird from a single dish.