The Galaxy 19 satellite, located at 97ºW, is one of the largest ethnic video platforms in the U.S. offering programmers and content distributors access to millions of homes in the U.S. cable community. RRsat has signed agreements with thirteen TV and radio channels to be broadcast on its new Galaxy 19 platform directly from RRsat’s Hawley Teleport in Pennsylvania. Channels already launched include the Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN), which also use RRsat’s services for global distribution, the three Hope channels: Hope Channel, Esperanza TV, and Hope Church channel; and Loma Linda Broadcasting Networks Inc., which broadcasts on Galaxy 19 in English, Arabic and Chinese and uses RRsat’s distribution services to North America, Asia, Africa and Australia. 3ABN, LLBN and the Adventist Television Network channels are all major Christian television and radio networks in the United States offering a full range of religious content and programming. Their presence on this platform is representative of the increase in content being distributed by RRsat’s Hawley Teleport in which both the source and the destination is North America.
“Interest in religious programming and content is on the rise in the United States,” commented Lior Rival, Vice President, Sales and Marketing of RRsat. “By positioning ourselves as a provider of global distribution for all types of religious content, we believe we can further penetrate this important market and become a leading distribution solution for this programming. Moreover, this launch represents another significant step in our penetration of the America-to-America market.”
RRsat’s customers are very pleased with the new platform and have said the following:
“Three Angels Broadcasting Network is happy to include its network for broadcasting on G-19 using RRsat.” said Moses Primo of 3ABN “We’ve been using RRsat satellite services for over 15 years and this G-19 coverage is just what we needed to reach free-to-air (FTA) viewers from Canada, The United States, and all the way down to Central America. For the last 25 years 3ABN has reached people with programming aimed at mending broken people and giving them a hope of a better life.”
“Our recent launch on G-19 has opened up valuable markets for LLBN in the Caribbean and Latin America. Also, our LLBN Arabic and LLBN Chinese networks are experiencing rapid growth across G-19’s North American Market.” said Derrell Mundall, Vice President of Marketing, LLBN International.
“SmartLifestyle TV is now providing health and lifestyle programming to headends and FTA viewers from Canada to South America on G-19.”said Ganim Hanna, President, SmartLifestyle TV, “ RRsat provides a platform that has brought advertisers, programmers, and affiliates to the door, and is making SmartLifestyle TV a household name in the viewer market.”
“The RRSat service for North America is an appealing service,” says Brad Thorp, President of the Hope Channel Inc network, which currently operates ten unique channels, says. “We also use RRSat for our service on Hotbird 6 and IS 10, and believe the new RRSat platform will have special benefit to millions of viewers in the Americas.”
