SES Lands Olympic Coverage, Middle East Enterprise Capacity Deals
By Jeffrey Hill | April 5, 2012
[Satellite TODAY Insider 04-05-12] SES has won a satellite broadband service contract and a second deal to broadcast coverage of the 2012 Olympics in London, the FSS operator announced April 4.
Regional Internet service provider SkyGate entered into a five-year contract for the distribution of the SES Broadband satellite service, formerly known as Astra2Connect, in the Middle East.
SES Broadband was designed as a high-speed Internet solution for small- and medium-sized enterprises, as well as for residential users in remote areas. SkyGate currently markets SES Broadband to end-user customers and businesses in the Middle East, offering download speeds of up to 10 megabits-per-second using the Astra 3B satellite at the 23.5 degrees East orbital slot.
SES Chief Commercial Officer Ferdinand Kayser said the Middle East region is one of the fastest growing markets for enterprise broadband services.
“With SkyGate, we have found an excellent partner to deliver satellite broadband to the Middle East,” Kayser said in a statement. “We see growing demand for connectivity coming from this region and, with SkyGate, we will be able to offer reliable broadband access to businesses and individuals that have so far been lacking Internet connection.”
Separately, SES announced that BSkyB will broadcast 48 new BBC channels dedicated to London 2012 Olympic coverage and that more than 40 of the new channels will broadcast in the United Kingdom through its Astra satellite system.
BSkyB’s 24 HD and 24 SD channels will cover each of the Olympic locations and show a range of different events during the games. BSkyB said both Freesat and Freesat from Sky customers would benefit from the satellite capacity acquired by Sky, as the live transmission will use Astra satellite capacity at the 28.2 degrees East orbital slot.
“The ability to stream these live Olympics channels shows the strength of satellite in delivering high bandwidth video, especially in HD,” said SES Senior Vice President of European Sales Norbert Hölzle. “Two dozen live feeds from the different Olympic locations will give viewers a fantastic opportunity to follow multiple events live, in both SD and HD. We are proud that SES will be used by our long-standing customers to deliver this fantastic showcase.”