Arab States Broadcasting Union picks EUTELSAT 21B satellite as broadcast exchange gateway between North Africa, Middle East and Europe

3 April 2014

Eutelsat Communications announces that the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) has concluded a multi-year contract for Ku-band capacity on the EUTELSAT 21B satellite that provides exceptional reach of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

The capacity will be used for broadcast content exchanges between ASBU member broadcasters in a region extending from Morocco to Bahrain and from the Mediterranean to Yemen, Sudan and Mauritania and also extending their footprint to Europe. Uplinks will typically be carried out using cost-effective antennas based on a transmission plan enabling three Standard Digital (SD) carriers to be transmitted in DVB S2 or one HD and two SD carriers.

Set up in 1969, ASBU is one of the most established Arab institutions with over 30 active broadcaster members and 25 associate members. It provides a key platform for radio and television exchanges of news, programming and sports across the Arab world and is also actively supporting the industry-wide Carrier ID initiative to mitigate signal interference.

Salaheddine Maaoui Director General ASBU said: “EUTELSAT 21B with its best coverage both in elevation and performance provides ASBU as a gateway between North Africa, Middle East and Europe to our programme exchange centre in Algiers for distribution.“

Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Eutelsat’s Chief Commercial Officer, added: “The scale and diversity of our in-orbit resources enables us to align capacity and coverage to the precise requirements of customers. We are honoured to strike this new relationship with ASBU and that EUTELSAT 21B matches their expectations to provide the highest signal quality to their members for immediate coverage of events.”