Media Broadcast Satellite realises satellite uplink for M7 Group S.A. on Astra 23.5° East

July 13, 2016

A new agreement for Media Broadcast Satellite GmbH: The service provider for the international media industry handles uplink services for Luxembourg-based M7 Group S.A. on its platform on Astra 23.5° East. The collaboration is based on a contract both companies signed for an initial 3-year period. It comprises the uplink of SD and HD channels onto M7's pay-TV platform Skylink for direct-to-home households in the Benelux countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Media Broadcast Satellite provides comprehensive uplink services covering a total of 6 transponders on Astra 23.5° East. All uplink services are handled by Media Broadcast Satellite's teleport in Usingen.

"We are excited to support M7's Skylink platform with our satellite distribution services for the DTH market," Christian Fleischhauer, Managing Director of Media Broadcast Satellite, commented on the contract closing. "With the best possible signal availability and a 24/7/365 service, we will support M7 in the extension of the digital TV markets in the Benelux countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, thereby not last also sustainably driving HDTV distribution in these regions. This constitutes an ideal supplementation of our B2B activities which we continue to persistently enforce."

"Media Broadcast Satellite is a technology partner offering the best quality possible with highly professional services in uplink and monitoring for the extension and development of our TV platforms," added Bill Wijdeveld, Vice President Business Development of M7 Group S.A. "These are ideal preconditions to enforce the development of the channel line-up of Skylink, Canal Digitaal and TV Vlaanderen, thereby offering our viewers perfect TV entertainment."

Media Broadcast Satellite is one of the strong players in the satellite distribution market. Satellite transmissions for point-to-point connections or DTH and DTC platforms (DVB-S/DVB-S2) with transponder capacities offering a wide reach provide coverage across the whole EMEA region. This is complemented by powerful uplink services through its teleport in Usingen near Frankfurt/Main. With platforms on the key European satellite positions Astra 19.2° East, Astra 23.5° East, Eutelsat 9° East and Eutelsat Hot Bird 13° East, Media Broadcast Satellite reaches more than 230 million TV households in 52 countries in Europe, North Africa and the Arabic region reaching as far as Afghanistan. In addition to channel contribution and signal processing, the portfolio also comprises encoding, encryption, playout, uplink and transmission. A seamless monitoring of the signal distribution chain by the teleport in Usingen guarantees a maximum in signal availability.

Through the platform used by M7 on Astra 23.5° East, Media Broadcast Satellite addresses more than 2 million DTH households in the Czech and Slovak Republics as well as over 1 million DTH households in the Benelux region. Around 10 million connected TV households are also covered by DTC services.