StarTimes ups Eutelsat capacity, plans African expansion

StarTimes has struck new multi-year deals with Eutelsat that will allow it to accelerate the rollout of digital TV services across Africa.

The firm said that, in anticipation of the continued expansion of Africa’s TV market, it has secured extra capacity and plans to “scale up further by the end of the year”.

StarTimes has also renewed capacity contracts on two Eutelsat satellites and uplink agreements with Slovenian teleport operator STN.

StarTimes claims that its multi-channel TV platform is available in more than 7 million homes across 13 Sub-Saharan African countries and that it plans to expand into the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia in August.

“We rely on Eutelsat’s advanced satellite communication technology to make our signals available throughout the African continent. Going forward, we will continue to work with Eutelsat to provide the best digital TV service to our African customers,” said StarTimes group chairman and president Pang Xinxing.

Eutelsat CEO, Rodolphe Belmer, said that it can help StarTimes to achieve its ambition to reach 30 million homes in 30 African countries by 2018.

“Eutelsat is fully engaged in the transformation of Africa’s broadcasting landscape and is proud to work with the players who are bringing the benefits of digital TV to viewers across the continent,” said Belmer.