February 9 (SeeNews) - French-based satellite operator Eutelsat said on Monday it has extended its agreement with Southeast European (SEE) TV and broadband service provider United Group for capacity on its EUTELSAT 16A satellite.
The signed deal will provide premium reach of United Group’s target markets for the Total TV pay-TV platform, Eutelsat said in a statement.
United Group's Total TV platform, which broadcasts exclusively from the EUTELSAT 16A satellite, has built a base of over half a million subscriber homes in Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Macedonia.
In addition to securing capacity requirements at the leading video neighbourhood in South East Europe, Total TV is preparing the ground for the complete migration of its multi-channel platform to MPEG4 and DVB-S2 in order to optimise capacity and increase its HD channel offer.
The transition will start later this month and is expected to be completed by mid-2016.
“[..] The transition will make it possible for us to offer them more HD channels," Victoriya Boklag, vice president of sales and marketing at United Group, said.
Operating under the SBB, Telemach and Total TV brands, United Group serves 1.89 million cable and satellite TV, broadband, fixed and mobile subscribers across six SEE markets with a combined population of over 20 million.
Eutelsat Communications, established in 1977, provides capacity on 35 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies.