New Skies Satellites B.V. said it signed an agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to accommodate the transmission of live coverage from news and sports events originating in or broadcasting to North America, Latin America and Europe via New Skies’ Washington D.C. mediaport and the NSS-806 satellite. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The multi-year agreement with the EBU, a group of 119 broadcasters from 79 countries, incorporates a fixed amount of capacity on NSS-806 and teleport services from New Skies’ Washington D.C. Mediaport, which has been interconnected as a node on the EBU’s transatlantic Eurovision Fiber Network. The service has been designed to allow for flexible expansion of their capacity during key sporting and special events from throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe, guaranteeing that the EBU can support the contribution requirements of its member stations during periods of high demand. Under the terms of the agreement, the EBU has moved their traffic onto NSS-806 immediately, and has already used the satellite for several events taking place throughout Europe, including coverage from Vatican City, the British Royal Wedding and Formula One racing.

In other New Skies news, the company announced it closed recent agreements for the addition of several new channels to the company’s NSS-806 Latin American video neighborhood. Specifically, Elo Comunicacoes and Rede Uniao in Brazil, Compania Broadcasting Centroamericana in Honduras and Impsat Venezuela added a total of seven new channels to the neighborhood, further strengthening New Skies’ penetration into the Brazilian, Central American and Andean markets.