Nilesat & Eutelsat sign ‘strategic agreement’

For the past few years Eutelsat has been providing a huge amount of capacity into the Middle East. Eutelsat has agreements in place with both Arabsat and Nilesat to supply satellite transponders into the region, and also with Noorsat, a ‘virtual satellite operator’ which competes with Nilesat and Arabsat. Now, Eutelsat and Nilesat have signed a new strategic agreement which covers Hot Bird 10.

Nilesat and Eutelsat both have certain rights to occupy the 7 deg West orbital position. Eutelsat has been partnering with Nilesat at 7 degrees West since July 2006 when its Atlantic Bird 4 satellite was co-positioned with the existing Nilesat 101 and Nilesat 102 satellites. This constellation of three satellites at a single neighbourhood currently comprises 39 transponders, which transmit more than 450 television channels to an audience over 38m homes. The development of the shared neighbourhood will move into a new phase with the commercial entry into service later this month of Atlantic Bird 4A at 7 degrees West, enabling Nilesat to boost through to 2019 the number of transponders it leases from Eutelsat.

The collaboration between both operators will move into a third phase with the deployment in mid-2010 of the Nilesat 201 satellite procured by Nilesat. This will be followed in 2011 by the arrival of Atlantic Bird 4R, which Eutelsat will shortly procure.

When the agreement was signed, Amin Bassyouni, CEO of Nilesat, said: "This new strategic agreement comes after a full leveraging of capacity at 7 degrees West to meet the growing demand from Nilesat. We are pleased to conclude this new agreement which shapes for the next decade the mutual partnership and cooperation between Nilesat and Eutelsat. With this achievement and the launch of Nilesat 201, Nilesat and Eutelsat are developing 7 degrees West services and applications."