Globecast partners with Eutelsat to launch new Hotbird platform

German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is the first customer to use the new service, launching its international HD channel in English.

Globecast has expanded its collaboration with Eutelsat Communications to create a new platform Hotbird in order to satisfy the growing shift from SD to HD in the market.

Samuel Lemercier, director of strategic projects, assures that "we have seen an increase in demand for capacity across Europe from west to east as the migration to HD at Hotbird continues to grow. TRT Arabi and Belarus 24 partnered with us for HD distribution earlier this year. In order to meet this growing demand, we have launched this new platform with Eutelsat, significantly increasing our DVBS2 capacity, suitable for HD and UHD for free-to-air DTH or distribution to affiliates, in throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.”

In addition to Hotbird's expanded capacity, the platform also includes ground segment services with connectivity to Globecast's fiber network, Globecast's backbone network, as well as its media management capabilities.

The German international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is the first customer to use the new service, launching its HD television channel in English. This includes the end-to-end contribution of the channel from DW's facilities in Berlin to Globecast in Paris and the uplink from there. Globecast has worked with DW for many years, distributing its channels in both Asia and the Middle East.

Hubert Czaja, head of distribution systems at Deutsche Welle, says: "We have been working with Globecast for quite some time and are confident in their commercial and technical expertise and the quality of service they offer. We moved to HD across Asia several years ago and now is the time to take the step in Europe to increase the picture quality for our viewers. We are delighted to expand our relationship with Eutelsat and Globecast."

Aymeric Genty, regional vice president for France and Overseas, Benelux, United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and Israel in Eutelsat, recognizes that "our partnership with Globecast is very important as Hotbird continues to experience growth in the high definition market, especially for free and internationally renowned channels that benefit from the unrivaled coverage of this neighborhood in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. This new platform provides profitable HD and UHD distribution, as the channels look to increase viewer engagement and meet the growing demand for HD."

"Our relationship with Eutelsat is fundamental to our channel distribution business and the operating model has long been proven to provide the quality of service demanded by our customers. The use of DVB-S2 allows us to be more efficient in managing transponder capacity and therefore more profitable. This means that we can efficiently support the continued migration to HD and offer more bandwidth when necessary. We are seeing great activity in the satellite market as the channels continue migrating to HD”, concludes Lemercier.