Arqiva: Arqiva delivers Southern Africa Direct on Sky

Nov 28, 2007 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- MSLSF | charts | news | PowerRating -- Arqiva's Satellite Media Solutions division announced today that it is supporting the delivery of Southern Africa Direct, a new free-to-air lifestyle and culture television channel, onto the UK Sky Digital platform channel 283. Southern Africa Direct is the UK's first Destination TV' channel, providing an authentic and engaging information source for anyone interested in visiting or building commercial links with Southern Africa. The channel's content includes lifestyle & culture, travel & tourism and commerce programming related to the Southern Africa region.

To deliver the channel, Arqiva is providing Southern Africa Direct with 3.5Mb/s of space on the Eurobird satellite. Playout of the channel is from Arqiva's Chalfont Grove facility where it is encoded, multiplexed and uplinked to the Eurobird satellite.

The fully managed playout service provides Southern Africa Direct with digital archive storage which increases the accessibility of content while reducing the need for tape-based re-ingest. Southern AfricaDirect will be ingesting two hours of new content each day. The contract also provides for a downstream graphical package to allow scheduled graphics to be placed over the video content. These graphics can contain multiple layers which allow complex effects to be created for additional on-screen information and branding.

Clare Bramley, Chief Operating Officer, Southern Africa Direct, said: "Having approached a number of service providers we were initially attracted to Arqiva by its longstanding industry reputation. The company's extensive international infrastructure and ability to provide the exact services we required, both for the launch and looking ahead to the future, pushed Arqiva ahead of the competition when it came to signing the contract."

John Bozza, director of sales at Arqiva's Satellite Media Solutions division, added: "We're delighted to have won the opportunity to launch this innovative and high profile channel. Arqiva now has extensive satellite space segment, unrivalled international connectivity and a comprehensive range of broadcast services. Working together with our state-of-the-art playout systems we are making it easier and more cost effective than ever to launch a technologically sophisticated TV channel."

About Southern Africa Direct

Southern Africa Direct is a free-to-air lifestyle and culture TV channel available on the Sky Digital platform and online. It is the UK's first Destination TV' channel, providing an authentic and engaging information source for anyone interested in visiting or building commercial links with Southern Africa.

Southern Africa Direct's pioneering programming focuses on lifestyle & culture, travel & tourism and commerce, providing a gateway for a broad range of UKviewers, whatever their interest in the region. The channel provides significant opportunities for sponsors and advertisers wanting to reach an affluent and adventurous demographic. For more information please visit www.southernafricadirect.com

About Arqiva

Arqiva operates at the heart of the broadcast and mobile communications industry and is at the forefront of network solutions and services in an increasingly digital world. The company provides much of the infrastructure behind television, radio and wireless communications in the UKand has a growing presence in Ireland, mainland Europe and the USA.

For broadcasters, media companies and corporate enterprises Arqiva has end-to-end capability ranging from outside broadcasts, satellite newsgathering, studios, playout, satellite distribution and terrestrial transmission, the latter including digital switch over and mobile TV development.

In the communications sector the company supports cellular, wireless broadband, video, voice and data solutions for the mobile phone, public safety, public sector, public space and transport markets.

Arqiva has its headquarters in Hampshire, with other major UK offices in London, Buckinghamshire and Yorkshire. It now has ten international satellite teleports, over 60 other manned locations, and around 3500 shared radio sites throughout the UK and Ireland including masts, towers and rooftops from under 30 to over 300 metres tall.

The company is owned by a consortium of investors led by Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group and has five operating divisions: Terrestrial Media Solutions, Satellite Media Solutions, Mobile Media Solutions, Wireless Solutions and Public Safety.

Major customers include ITV, Channel 4, Five, the BBC, BSkyB, Classic FM, the five UKmobile operators, the RNLI and the Metropolitan Police.

CONTACT: Bruce Randall, Arqiva, Winchester Tel: +44 (0)1962 822582 e-mail: press.office@arqiva.com WWW: http://www.arqiva.com Bethan Thomas / Laura Imregi, Nelson Bostock Communications Tel: +44 (0)20 7792 7423 e-mail: bethan.thomas@nelsonbostock.com

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