[Satellite TODAY 09-14-09] South African direct-to-home (DTH) television operator MultiChoice signed a long-term, multi-transponder capacity agreement with Intelsat, the FSS operator announced Sept. 11.
    The agreement extends and expands MultiChoice’s existing contract on the Intelsat 7 satellite at 68.5 degrees East and includes capacity on the follow-on satellite, Intelsat 20 – scheduled for launch in early 2012. The contract spans the 15-year expected life of Intelsat 20.
    MultiChoice, which collaborated with Intelsat on the design of the South African Ku-band payload for Intelsat 20, will optimize the signal reception power for MultiChoice’s 2.6 million customers throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.
    “Intelsat’s 68.5 degrees East orbital location is the leading video neighborhood for Africa, and a high-value orbital location for DTH service providers like MultiChoice that require the ideal coverage, resilience and reliability the Intelsat network provides,” said Flavien Bachabi, Intelsat’s regional vice president of Africa, in a statement.

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