The Amos 6 satellite in production. Photo: Spacecom

[Via Satellite 04-18-2016] Spacecom, operator of the Amos satellite fleet, and Encompass Digital Media, announced a new joint European TV distribution platform. The joint service will be distributed throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region over the Amos 6 satellite’s Ku Pan-European beam from its 4 degrees west orbital position.

Encompass and Spacecom’s shared initiative will provide channels and other content providers with a comprehensive solution for all playout, uplink and European space segments, for a full range of media distribution services over the satellite. Spacecom has partnered with Satellite Mediaport Services, located in Rugby, U.K., to provide uplink services for the platform.

Amos 6 is scheduled to launch during the third quarter of this year. The satellite has 39 Ku-band segments and 24 Ka-band beams and will be larger than Amos 2 and Amos 3 combined. Amos 6 will incorporate new technologies such as High Throughput Ka-band spot beams for improved broadband Internet access, covering Europe and Africa; as well as Ku-band technologies for new and existing clients. Facebook has selected the satellite’s Ka-band beams to be the satellite backbone of its initiative to bring broadband Internet to Sub Sahara Africa with Eutelsat.