Eutelsat awarded EADS Astrium the contract to build the Hot Bird 10 satellite, Eutelsat announced Oct. 19.

Hot Bird 10 will be based on Astrium’s Eurostar E3000 platform and be positioned at Eutelsat’s 13 degrees East orbital slot, joining Hot Bird 8, which began service earlier this month, and Hot Bird 9, which was ordered in May. Each will carry 64 Ku-band transponders.

Hot Bird 10 is scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2009. Eutelsat will relocate the Hot Bird 7A spacecraft from 13 degrees East to 10 degrees East, where Hot Bird 7A will provide increased capacity for video services in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

“By boosting our resource at established and growing video neighborhoods we are in a privileged position to benefit from the strong dynamic of broadcasting markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East,” Giuliano Berretta, CEO of Eutelsat, said in a statement. “Hot Bird 10 will further consolidate our premium Hot Bird position and will also expand the associated resource we can offer broadcasters from 10 degrees East for standard digital television, high-definition television and new video services using MPEG-4 compression.”