BBC Prime joins GlobeCast platform on Eutelsat’s EUROBIRDTM 9A satellite

London, 8 June 2009 – BBC Worldwide has become the latest major broadcaster to benefit from GlobeCast’s second transponder on Eutelsat’s EUROBIRD™ 9A satellite after calling on the content management and delivery company to provide a distribution and capacity solution for its international channel BBC Prime.

BBC Prime, which was previously broadcast by GlobeCast from Eutelsat’s HOT BIRD™ Satellite neighbourhood, has taken advantage of EUROBIRD™ 9A’s prime position at 9˚East, which provides comprehensive Direct-to-Home coverage of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, with the potential to reach more than 300 million TV households across the region.

In order to make the transition from HOT BIRD™ as smooth as possible, Eutelsat provided BBC Worldwide and GlobeCast with more than 600 ClipSatTM devices to distribute to cable and DTH operators across the region, enabling them to access both EUROBIRD™ 9A and HOT BIRD™ channels from the one standard dish.

GlobeCast receives the BBC Prime feed via fibre at its central London Technical Operations Centre on Gray’s Inn Road. From there the signal is sent via fibre to GlobeCast’s Brookmans Park facility where it is uplinked to the EUROBIRD™ 9A satellite.

GlobeCast has two dedicated transponders on EUROBIRD™ 9A that allow for uplink from both the UK and France.

Press Contact

Vanessa Ching vanessa.ching {at} globecast(.)com +65 6325 4222

GlobeCast (www.globecast.com): a subsidiary of France Telecom, is a 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. Top-tier broadcasters and content providers of all sizes turn to GlobeCast for 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 11 teleports and technical operations centres as well as its 17 offices in Europe, North and Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australia