Fiji TV Chooses Intelsat for DTH in the Pacific Ocean Region

LUXEMBOURG — Intelsat S.A., the world’s leading provider of satellite services, has announced a long-term agreement with Fiji TV. The programmer will use capacity on the Intelsat 19 video neighborhood, located at 166° East, to offer direct-to-home (DTH) services to customers across the Pacific Ocean region, which includes Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

In addition, Fiji TV renewed its video contribution requirements and capacity for its subsidiary Media Niugini Limited, which operates EMTV, a commercial, free-to-view channel that is uplinked from Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. EMTV is Papua New Guinea’s only free-to-view channel.

Fiji TV also offers Sky Pacific, a Pay TV service uplinked from Suva, Fiji, that offers such channels as Fiji One, Discovery, CNN and BBC World. With its new MPEG-4 platform on Intelsat 19, the agreement will enable Fiji TV to add programming to its current package, providing viewers dozens of channels of compelling content.

“DTH service is often the only medium for reaching viewers in the remote communities of the geographically dispersed Pacific Ocean region,” said Intelsat RVP of Asia-Pacific Sales Terry Bleakley. “Therefore, DTH providers and programmers seeking effective access to customers from Australia and New Zealand to the Pacific Islands continue to turn to the Intelsat 19 video neighborhood for reliable distribution.”

“Fiji TV’s strategic focus has always been to expand our Pay TV business in the Pacific Ocean region,” said Tarun Patel, Group Chief Executive Officer of Fiji TV. “This agreement reaffirms our commitment to providing informative and educational content. It also provides us a reliable platform to grow our service offerings in the future.”

Intelsat 19 provides C- and Ku-band capacity for media, government and network services customers in the western United States and Asia-Pacific regions. It also carries three Ku-band mobility beams that provide maritime and aeronautical customers with reliable connectivity throughout the northern and southwestern Pacific Ocean region. Intelsat’s global broadband mobility platform is scheduled for completion in early 2013.