StarTimes cements Eutelsat ties for African expansion

Rebecca Hawkes
| 08 July 2016

StarTimes has secured capacity on two Eutelsat satellites and entered an uplinking agreement with Slovenia’s STN, to facilitate roll out of digital TV services across Africa.

StarTimesChina’s StarTimes already provides multi-channel TV to over seven million homes in 13 sub-Saharan countries, and plans to launch in DRC Congo and Zambia in August. Its mix of international and local pay-TV and free-to-air channels, which now number around 200, are delivered via satellite.

As well as renewing its existing contract with Eutelsat, Star Times has ordered extra satellite capacity to host yet more services later this year. It will also be able to uplink channels from Europe and Africa through the deal with the satellite operator’s partner STN.

“StarTimes and Eutelsat are long-term strategic partners. We rely on Eutelsat’s advanced satellite communication technology to make our signals available throughout the African continent. Going forward, we will continue to work with Eutelsat to provide the best digital TV service to our African customers,” said Pang Xinxing, chairman and president, StarTimes Group.

Rodolphe Belmer, CEO, Eutelsat, added: “Eutelsat is fully engaged in the transformation of Africa’s broadcasting landscape and is proud to work with the players who are bringing the benefits of digital TV to viewers across the continent. In leveraging diversified satellite resources we can help StarTimes achieve its ambition to reach 30 million homes in 30 African countries by 2018.”