Eutelsat readies for World Cup

Satellite operator Eutelsat has prepped four satellites to deliver coverage of the World Cup, which takes place next month.

Eutelsat’s W2A, W3A, W4 and W7 satellites will offer worldwide coverage of the football tournament in South Africa. The European Broadcasting Union will reinforce its existing permanent capacity on Eutelsat satellites with two extra 72MHz transponders booked on the W2A satellite.

This satellite will enable the games, summary reports and highlights to be broadcast live from the EBU’s international broadcast centre,  located in Soweto, to its headquarters in Geneva. Images will then be delivered by the EBU to its 75 broadcast members and other clients in Europe, using W2A for Europe and W3A for Africa and the Middle East.

As well as carrying live broadcasts of matches by rights holders, Eutelsat will provide customers operating in South Africa with satellite links so that journalists working in the field can connect to studios in their respective countries. Clients including GlobeCast, APTN, Arqiva, Telenor and TVI, who all already lease permanent capacity on Eutelsat, are set to reinforce their resources on W2A, W7 and W3A for these transmissions.