Asia’s leading satellite operator Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) announced that the Arabsat/ASBU Bouquet has commenced broadcasting on AsiaSat 2, joining other Middle Eastern programming for free to air distribution to serve the vast Arab community in Asia and Australasia.
This Arabic-language Bouquet consists of a group of television and radio services from the ASBU (Arab States Broadcasting Union) members including ten television channels from Abu Dhabi TV Europe, Jamahiriya Satellite Channel, Oman TV, Palestinian TV, Qatar TV, Saudi Arabian TV 1, Sharjah TV, Sudan TV, Syria Satellite Channel, Yemen TV and 13 radio channels. These channels, originally broadcasting on AsiaSat 3S, will be dual illuminating on both AsiaSat 2 and AsiaSat 3S satellites till 1st October when they become exclusively available on AsiaSat 2.
This broadcast arrangement is part of the ASBUs global satellite distribution project, in partnership with GlobeCast and Arabsat, initiated for the ASBU members for global programme distribution. AsiaSat 2 carries an established Middle Eastern community of programming from the Arab States. Moving the Arabsat/ASBU Bouquet to AsiaSat 2 is therefore the natural choice for continuing and expanding the broadcast services of our member channels in Asia and Australasia. We appreciate the value of joining Asias most popular multicultural and multilingual broadcast platform, bringing our member channels to wider Arab audiences across the region, said Abdelrahim Suleiman, ASBU Technical Director.
Eng. Khalid Balkhyour, Arabsat President and CEO, welcomed the move of the Bouquet to AsiaSat 2, We are committed to actively support the development and success of the Arabsat/ASBU Bouquet and are glad to see the move to an even stronger neighbourhood of Arabic and foreign
programming on AsiaSat 2. AsiaSat 2 is home to Asias Middle Eastern content that now offers viewers a comprehensive platform of Arabic programming. We are very pleased that we have further expanded the Middle
Eastern neighbourhood on AsiaSat 2, enabling Arabic viewers under our vast coverage to access multiple channels on a powerful satellite, said Peter Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of AsiaSat.
The Arabsat/ASBU Bouquet is available on AsiaSat 2 in C-band with the following reception parameters:
Transponder: 5A
Frequency: 3820 MHz
Polarisation: Vertical
Modulation: QPSK
Symbol Rate: 27.5 Msym/sec
FEC: 3/4