africa2_africa 30/10/2013 09:34 Page 3
Freevision to boost digital FTA
entech, South Africa’s
state-owned broadcasting signal distributor,
has rebranded its Vivid service as ‘Freevision – a
Universal Access Direct-ToHome Satellite (DTH-S) platform service.’
Sentech says
the launch of
‘Freevision’
seeks to ensure
alignment of the
Company’s
broader electronic communications network services with its
Public Service Mandate obligations and the changing media
landscape brought about by
digital convergence.
The Broadcasting Digital
Migration (BDM) Policy of 2012
provides that Electronic
Communications Network Service
(ECNS) provider for Public and
Community broadcasting services
operating on the Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT)
Multiplex 1 should ensure 100%
reception of these broadcasting
services throughout the country.
The BDM Policy notes that the
imperative is to ensure that citizens in the Northern Cape Square
Kilometre Array
(SKA) and all
areas in the
Republic that
are deemed difficult or uneconomical to
reach through
the DTT transmitter network are provided for
through a Universal Access DTHS ‘gap-filler’ platform service.
Sentech believes that the
launch of the ‘Freevision’
Universal Access DTH-S platform
service will enable Public and
Community broadcasting operators to distribute their services to
all citizens.
The Sentech broadcasting signal distribution network architec-
NHK World reaches
Africa With Globecast
Carried as part of the
Canalsat Afrique direct-tohome schedule, NHK World is
being offered free-to-air for
these new African audiences,
in keeping with its global
brand philosophy for other
markets. Globecast is providing a complete solution to
bring NHK World to the point
of uplink, including contribution, encryption, and encoding.
“With its excellent coverage of the whole Central and
Western Africa region and a
compelling path to entry into
the hotel chains there, SES-4
offers NHK World a solid platform for its initial launch into
Africa and future expansion
moving forward,” said Juliet
Bayliss, UK sales
director for
Globecast.
“We’re glad we
were able to
leverage our
close ties with
Canalsat to
S
Media management and global content delivery service
specialist Globecast has confirmed that it is providing
services to NHK World, delivering the channel via satellite
to new audiences in Central
and Western Africa. NHK
World, the international
broadcast channel of
Japanese national public
broadcaster NHK, launched
the new service in July as part
of Canalsat, a package of
more than 130 channels,
radio stations, and services
operated by CANAL+ Afrique
on the SES-4 satellite at 22
degrees west orbital position.
4 AFRICA Briefing
ture is a unique design that will
enable all licensed DTT
Broadcasters that use Sentech’s
broadcasting signal distribution
network to distribute their broadcasting services on the DTH-S
Universal Access ‘gap-filler’ platform service without incurring
additional signal distribution
operational costs.
The ‘Freevision’ platform service is located at 68.5°E on Intelsat
20 - the largest video neighbourhood in Sub-Saharan Africa, with
an estimated 60 million viewers.
This means that the majority of
viewers in South Africa would not
need to install a second satellite
dish or change the position of
their existing satellite dish when
joining Freevision.
Dr Setumo Mohapi, chief executive officer of Sentech said: “We
believe that this unique broadcasting signal distribution network
design ensures that Public
Funding provided to the Sentech
is efficiently leveraged to reduce
integrate our client
NHK World in its service plan, despite the
very tight schedule.
Our ability to negotiate effectively with
our satellite partners
is a large part of the service
we offer to content
providers.”
OpenView HD goes live
OpenView HD, the free-to-air
satellite TV service created by
etv sister company Platco
Digital has begun broadcasting. Platco Digital says it is
‘Africa’s first free-to-air HD
satellite television platform.’
According to Maxwell
Nonge, MD of Platco Digital,
the offering addresses South
Africa’s under-served market.
The OpenView HD channel
offering consists of over 10
new channels, as well as
SABC1, SABC2, SABC3 and
etv. The broadcaster has also
the cost of broadcasting signal
distribution services, and most
importantly, to make multichannel broadcasting signal distribution tariffs affordable, thus
encouraging the entry of Small,
Medium and Micro Enterprise
(SMME) single-channel broadcasters into the mainstream
Television broadcasting sector.”
Mohapi said the company
believed that Freevision was a
necessary strategic development
in South Africa’s roadmap to
enhance the growth of the
broadcasting sector as well as to
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