BBC World Service and GlobeCast launch Persian TV

Paris, 16 January 2009 – The BBC World Service has selected GlobeCast as its distribution partner for the launch of its new Farsi-language channel BBC Persian TV on the Telstar 12 and Hot Bird 6 satellites. BBC Persian TV will be available to IPTV, DTH and Cable Operators across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

GlobeCast receives the BBC Persian TV signal direct from the BBC World Service at Bush House in Central London before sending the signal via its international fibre network to two different locations for broadcast.

For broadcast across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa GlobeCast uses capacity on the Telstar 12 satellite at 15˚West. The signal is sent by fibre to New York where leading satellite service company Globecomm picks it up and sends it to its Long Island teleport for uplink.

The new channel is also available for European broadcasters to downlink from Hot Bird 6. GlobeCast uplinks the signal from its Brookmans Park Technical Operations Centre in Hertfordshire, to the satellite which is located at 13˚East.

For both satellite platforms, GlobeCast is also providing the BBC with a 24 hour, 365 day a year, monitoring service across the entire network from its Master Control Room at Brookmans Park.
The BBC’s Farsi-language Persian TV channel will appeal to the Iranian community across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and will provide a range of programming including investigative current affairs, factual, cultural and educational documentaries as well as covering international and major regional issues. It will also carry multi-media discussion programmes and debates in conjunction with the BBC’s well-established and trusted Farsi radio and online services.

GlobeCast is a perfect partner for the BBC, thanks to its market-leading status in Europe and its international satellite and fibre network. GlobeCast has a longstanding relationship with the BBC, having delivered BBC World News throughout Europe on the Hot Bird satellite for over a decade. GlobeCast also recently worked with BBC Worldwide to deliver BBC Knowledge, BBC Entertainment, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies to IPTV, DTH and Cable providers in India, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Poland.

Press Contacts

Tracey Milham tracey.milham {at} globecast(.)com +44 20 7753 3617

GlobeCast (www.globecast.com): a subsidiary of France Telecom, is the leading global provider of content management and worldwide transmission services for professional broadcast delivery. The company operates a secure global satellite and fibre network to manage and transport 10 million hours of video and other rich media each year, providing ingest, aggregation, transmission and repurposing of content for delivery to direct-to-home satellite platforms; cable, IPTV, mobile and broadband headends; as well as corporate and digital signage networks. GlobeCast’s fleet of SNG trucks deploys globally to support coverage of the biggest news and sporting events each year in SD and HDTV formats. Borders are non-existent when it comes to GlobeCast’s services, thanks to the company’s 12 teleports and technical operations centres as well as its 18 offices in Europe, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia.