The Asia Pacific region will receive more content from EBU members thanks to an extension of Eurovision’s deal with AsiaSat

Eurovision and asia sat satellite partnership (2)

Eurovision, the operative division of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) have announced an expansion of their partnership.

The partnership will see the use of multiple C-band transponders on AsiaSat 5, a communications satellite which has a footprint covering more than 53 countries from Russia to New Zealand and from Japan to the Middle East as well as parts of Africa.

As well as the AsiaSat 5, a teleport service from AsiaSat’s Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong will be used for occasional live sports and news transmissions in the Asia Pacific region. This satellite service supports permanent TV channel distribution in Asia for EBU members and customers.

Delivering data 

Since 1999 Eurovision and AsiaSat have partnered together to deliver top quality sports events to broadcasters holding rights in the Asia-Pacific region. These include major football league competitions and tournaments. This collaboration has recently expanded to 4K transmissions of major events successfully delivered to the international broadcasting community.

AsiaSat Chief Commercial Officer Barrie Woolston said: “We are very pleased to have this opportunity to continue working with our long-term partner Eurovision, expanding on our shared commitment to bring more value to our customers and their audiences through our ever strengthening partnership.”

“AsiaSat is determined to stay at the forefront of technology to deliver the best global live sports content possible” – Barrie Woolston

The Eurovision Global Network provides value-added services such as equipment hosting, turnaround and uplink services to EBU members and customers. The AsiaSat’s satellite and ground-based facilities have been a key component to the successful delivery of data for Eurovision – particularly connecting AsiaSat’s Tai Po Earth Station in Hong Kong to the Eurovision FiNE (fibre networks) allowing Eurovision to deliver enhanced services.

 Eurovision Chief Operating Officer Graham Warren said: “We are delighted to expand our collaboration with AsiaSat to deliver more global live sports events using advanced technology such as 4K. Together we can enhance and offer Asian audiences a superior viewing experience and additional complementary services in the future.”