Eutelsat Communications has confirmed a technical anomaly with its W2 satellite at 16 degrees East on Wednesday evening from where some 400 channels are delivered.
The 12-year old craft carries a number of satellite platforms targeting Central & East Europe including Total TV, DigitAlb and ITV Partner as well as Canal+ content for the French overseas territories. It is also used as a distribution hub into Central Europe by Sony’s AXN channels.
In a statement, Eutelsat said the incident was under investigation by Eutelsat and the satellite’s manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space. “Immediate actions have been taken in parallel in order to propose alternative capacity to all customers affected by the anomaly, and services are progressively being restored.” The failure will be met with concern by Eutelsat’s technical department. In January 2009, the replacement W2N satellite was rejected by the Paris-based operator after an in-orbit failure. At the time Eutelsat said that W2 had sufficient resources to last through until 2010.
Some back-up at 16 degrees East is provided by the co-located Eurobird 16, the former Hot Bird 4.
UPDATE – Eutelsat has now confirmed it has fully restored all services on 16 degrees East (see story here)
