Intelsat launches Orion’s new Russian DTH service

Intelsat has announced that Russian DTH operator Orion Express has expanded its offering using capacity on the Intelsat 15 (IS-15) satellite, located at 85º East.

Under the multi-year, multi-transponder contract, Orion Express is distributing news, sports, entertainment and children’s programming for its new satellite platform, Continent TV. Continent TV offers viewers access to 50 television channels and 16 channels for cable network operators.

This follows last week’s announcement that Bulgarian telco BTC, which operates under the Vivacom brand, had launched its planned DTH service via Intelsat’s IS-12 satellite, located at 45° East. “A lot of telcos in Eastern Europe are at a crossroad where they are looking at ways to expand their services to increase stickiness,” Jean-Philippe Gillet, Intelsat’s regional vice-president, Europe and Middle East told DTVE Daily. “They are increasingly looking to deliver a video offering and launching a DTH service is a way to expand very quickly.