Antwerp, Kiev, Paris, 7 December 2005
Following the launch on November 25 by Poverkhnost of the Ukraine’s first pay-TV platform on Eutelsat’s W4 satellite, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) and Poverkhnost today announced that three HDTV channels produced by Euro1080 have joined the platform.
Using capacity supplied by Eutelsat on another satellite in the company’s fleet, Euro1080 is delivering its HD1, HD2 and HD5 channels to Poverkhnost’s studios in Kiev. They are uplinked from Kiev to W4, which enables direct reception of television channels in the Ukraine and surrounding countries, including Russia, Moldavia, Belarus and the Baltic states.
In addition to Euro1080’s HDTV channels, Poverkhnost’s new platform is broadcasting its own sports channel, Sport 1, Planet Sport Ukraine (produced with Russia’s state broadcaster RTR), the Real Madrid Channel and World Fashion Channel, a newly created channel covering fashion and lifestyle.
Giuliano Berretta Eutelsat’s Chairman and CEO commented "Eutelsat was delighted to cooperate with Poverkhnost in launching pay-TV into the Ukraine last month, and to mark another first this month with the expansion of HDTV into the Ukraine in collaboration with our new partner Euro1080. These landmarks further consolidate our W4 satellite which is uniquely placed for satellite broadcasting in Eastern Europe.”
Gabriel Fehervari, CEO of Euro1080, commented: “Our co-operation with Poverkhnost and Eutelsat is an important strategic milestone for Euro1080. Studies show that the East European markets are very promising for HDTV because important numbers of HDready flat-screens are being sold in the region. Given the fact that from now on HD1 and the time-sharing channels HD2 and HD5 can be received via Eutelsat’s W4 satellite, the geographical reception area of the Euro1080 HDTV channels is significantly enlarged” The Euro1080 signals are being transmitted in MPEG4. The conditional access card needed to receive the Euro1080 HDTV signal, is already MPEG4-ready.
