SES ASTRA’s SatCapacity Accessed Again

SES ASTRA now has an agreement for an additional transponder on its new prime orbital position, that being 23.5°E, for the Czech Pay-TV platform CS Link. The new capacity is to be used by CS Link, the largest payTV platform in the Czech Republic, to broadcast an enhanced program package. Czech Republic has 400,000 customers and transmits in total 25 TV and 11 radio programs. With the new agreement, CS Link will use three transponders on the ASTRA satellite system. SES ASTRA is successfully developing its 23.5° E orbital position into a new location for DTH. Two ASTRA satellites, ASTRA 3A and ASTRA 1E, occupy this position and currently serve Central Europe, the Benelux countries, and German cable networks, as well as offering the high-speed broadband service ASTRA2Connect. Benelux, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have generated strong demand on 23.5 degrees East in 2007, increasing the reach of these satellites to 700,000 DTH households and another 1.7 million households receiving their signal through cable head-ends in these regions—Betzdorf, Luxembourg