StarTimes, the Chinese company that recently came to the rescue of On Digital Media’s TopTV pay-television business, has signed a 10-year contract with European satellite operator SES to expand its media footprint in Africa.
The contact involves use of the SES-5 satellite in the five-degree east orbital slot and will be used to grow StarTimes’s direct-to-home broadcast services across the continent.
StarTimes, which says in a statement that it has 2,6m digital terrestrial television subscribers in Africa, recently acquired SES’s 20% stake in TopTV. Under South Africa’s constitution, foreign companies are not allowed to hold more than 20% of the equity of local broadcasters.
The satellite deal with SES will result in StarTimes using four transponders from October this year and a fifth transponder from February 2014.
The Chinese broadcaster will continue to broadcast TopTV on SES-5 using three newly contracted transponders that were formerly leased by On Digital Media. “The other two out of the five SES transponders contracted by StarTimes will be used to complement its digital terrestrial television offering in remote and non-urban areas and grow its pay-TV business,” the statement says. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media