Globecast has extended its partnership with SES to deliver three China Global Television Network (CGTN) channels in HD at 19.2 degrees East.
Under the multi-year agreement, Globecast will lease additional capacity on SES’s prime neighbourhood to deliver CGTN News, CGTN Documentary and CGTN French, and will manage the uplinking and contribution services for these channels. After a simulcast period, all three Chinese public broadcaster’s channels will broadcast exclusively in HD by the end of the year.
Commenting on the development, Shakunt Malhotra, MD-Asia of Globecast, said: “As premium broadcast service provider in the European region, when CGTN approached us with their plans to move to HD, our obvious choice was to work with our long-term partner, SES, to identify key positions. It’s a pleasure to start a new transponder on Astra 19.2 location with 24/7 channel monitoring services to reach large audiences for key public broadcaster like CGTN”.
Deepak Mathur, executive VP of Global Sales at SES Video, added: “Over the past 18 months we have seen multiple public broadcasters renew and expand contracts with SES and our partners because they recognise that satellite is the easiest and most reliable way to reach the widest possible audiences. In addition, they also want to broadcast in HD as TV viewers today expect crystal-clear images when they turn on their TV screens.
“Together with our long-term partner Globecast, we continue to provide broadcasters and content owners with the largest audience reach they are seeking for their content”.