wishing to expand their distribution to cable and Direct-to-Home (DTH) services across sub-Saharan Africa as part of the IntelsatONESM terrestrial network. Intelsat is a leading video provider in Africa, offering more than 800 television channels to the continent. Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of satellite services, and GlobeCast, a leading global content management and delivery company, today announced the launch of the Intelsat New Dawn Ku-band Multi-Channel Per Carrier (MCPC) media platform for Africa.
GlobeCast will provide ground and uplink services for the platform from its facility in Johannesburg, South Africa. Customers can contribute content to the platform from anywhere in the world, either via Intelsat’s global satellite fleet and the IntelsatONE network, or through the five-continent GlobeCast Backbone Network.
The Intelsat New Dawn MCPC media platform is Intelsat’s fourth Ku-band MCPC platform on the IntelsatONE network, bringing to 16 the total number of Intelsat MCPC platforms.
The platform is based on DVB-S2 modulation and MPEG-4 compression technology, and can be received with sub-1 meter antennas in much of its coverage area.
“One of the most exciting things about this new platform is that our broadcast customers can now uplink directly from Africa to a prime position for the DTH market in our region of the world,” said Alan Hird, CEO of GlobeCast Africa. “With our global satellite capacities and fiber network, the content can easily come from anywhere worldwide to GlobeCast’s facility in Johannesburg. We expect this to quickly become a key neighborhood for broadcasters in Africa.”
“The new Intelsat New Dawn MCPC platform offers programmers in Africa and throughout the world complete end-to-end solutions for delivering content to their affiliates and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Jon Osler, Intelsat’s managing director for Africa. “The addition of this platform supports entry for new channel carriers and adds to our global portfolio of content distribution solutions.”
