SES Joins Forces with SoftBank Corp. to Deliver Live Sporting Events Into Japan

September 30, 2021

Japanese sports fans will be able to enjoy more premium sports content as SoftBank Corp. has partnered with SES for the aggregation and delivery of live sporting events to its corporate customers, such as TV stations and video distribution companies, SES announced today.

Under the new agreement, SES, via its diverse global infrastructure of multi-orbit satellite fleets and fibre network, will aggregate content and deliver it directly to SoftBank. In providing this service, SES will use more than 300 downlink antennas located around the world, including those in its new Stockley Park facility in London, as well as its own fibre network with connections to other major fibre hubs. In addition, SES will establish a new link to SoftBank's fibre network.

“Whether viewed on mobile devices or broadcast TV, tennis, football, golf, and other live sports are some of our most popular content that we see a growing demand for,” said Norioki Sekiguchi, Vice President, Global Business Division at SoftBank Corp. “With its diverse global infrastructure and access to a variety of sports content, SES is in a unique position to help us deliver a wide range of sports content in very high quality to our corporate customers in Japan.”

“We are delighted to join forces with SoftBank, the first provider we are interconnecting and partnering with in Japan, with a common goal to bring engaging content to sports fans across the country,” said Ed Cox, Vice President, Sales North America and Sports & Events at SES. “Providing content feeds solely using fibre networks is great testament to SES’s ability to adapt and leverage our hybrid distribution services in the most effective way possible to meet our partner’s needs.”