GlobeCast breaks the 100 channel mark

11 September 2006

Content management and delivery company GlobeCast has expanded its mobile television offer into the United Kingdom and Switzerland, breaking the 100-channel mark for its mobile television offer. GlobeCast was recently chosen by Orange UK and Orange Switzerland (via Alcatel CIT) to deliver channels to their mobile television bouquets, consolidating GlobeCast’s position as the world’s leading provider of live television-to-mobile delivery services. GlobeCast will provide both Orange UK and Orange Switzerland with a turnkey solution from channel origination to delivery of the final bouquets via its extensive worldwide satellite and fibre network.

From its technical operations center in central Paris, GlobeCast will be responsible for aggregating and delivering five live channels on Orange UK’s Orange TV offering. GlobeCast’s solution for Orange UK includes satellite downlink of the channels from the Eurobird satellite, decoding, encrytption and fibre connectivity to Orange’s Multimedia Operations (OMO) center in Leeds. The five key channels delivered by GlobeCast – CNN, Eurosport, Smash Hits, Kerrang and Kiss – will be added to Orange UK’s larger bouquet of over 50 channels.

Similarly, GlobeCast is currently responsible for aggregating and operating Orange TV in Switzerland, thanks to a deal with Alcatel. The bouquet offers thirty general and thematic channels, including Eurosport, MTV and BBC World. GlobeCast’s solution for Orange Switzerland includes satellite downlink of the channels, delivery of the bouquet via fibre to Orange Switzerland’s mobile TV network and 24×7 supervision.

These two offers come in addition to the 77 television and radio channels that GlobeCast currently delivers to Orange France. Orange France launched its direct-to-mobile television and radio service at the end of 2004 as part of its development of broadband mobile services. At launch, only 11 channels were available but since February 2005, when GlobeCast was selected to manage the bouquet, the line-up has tripled to include 61 television and 16 radio channels.