IBC 2016: Intelsat, Arqiva renew international distribution for premium sports content

Arqiva has extended its relationship with Intelsat to distribute premium sports content to viewers in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region via multiple Intelsat satellites.

Under a multi-year agreement, Arqiva is using services on Intelsat 34 and Intelsat 20 to broadcast content to millions of sports fans located in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific regions.

“Intelsat’s premier video neighborhoods on Intelsat 20 and Intelsat 34 allow us to seamlessly and cost efficiently reach millions of sports fans outside of the UK,” says David Crawford, Managing Director of Arqiva Satellite and Media. “The combination of our distribution network and Intelsat’s satellite solutions makes it possible to view premium sports content worldwide, making Arqiva a trusted partner of choice to our customers.”

Jean-Philippe Gillet, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, EMEA Sales says: “The renewal of this multi-satellite service to our longtime customer Arqiva is evidence that our Intelsat 20 and Intelsat 34 satellites offer maximum cable headend penetration, maximizing the potential audience for sports programming around the world. Intelsat’s Globalized Network has the reach and reliability that Arqiva needs.”

The Intelsat 20 satellite, located at 68.5°E, hosts the region’s premier cable neighborhood that serves as a transcontinental hotspot from Europe, with a particularly high viewership in India.  Launched in 2015, Intelsat 34, orbiting at 304.5°E, is one of Intelsat’s three satellites hosting pan-regional video distribution neighborhoods in Latin America, complementing Intelsat 11 and Intelsat 21. Intelsat 34 includes a C-band payload which delivers media distribution services to Latin American cable systems for blue chip media powerhouses including Fox Sports and HBOLA.