Intelsat, the largest provider of commercial satellite services, renewed a deal to continue distributing China Central Television, the national broadcaster of the People’s Republic of China, in the United States, officials said Thursday.
CCTV’s pact is a multi-year contract for Ku-band capacity on Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C satellite to distribute its regional direct-to-home services in the United States.
CCTV became the world’s first global Mandarin Chinese television provider when it expanded its services internationally via the Intelsat 3R satellite located at 43 degrees West in 1995. Since then, this long-standing relationship spanning nearly 14 years has delivered CCTV’s programming to every region of the world.
Intelsat continues to provide CCTV with full-time program distribution services via the Intelsat 1R satellite located at 45 degrees West, the Intelsat 9 satellite located at 58 degrees West and the Intelsat 10 satellite, located at 68.5 degrees East.
“We have witnessed an increased demand for Chinese content among U.S. viewership,” CCTV vice president Zongjiu He said in a prepared statement. “Intelsat’s industry-leading Galaxy 3C satellite is the ideal platform for CCTV, enabling us to seamlessly reach that targeted DTH customer base.”
