Eutelsat and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the world’s largest professional association of national broadcasters, today announced the signature of a contract for four wideband transponders that will be used by the EBU for television coverage of the upcoming Athens Olympic Games.
The contract is for the equivalent of 306 MHz of Ku-band capacity on three Eutelsat satellites: ATLANTIC BIRD* 3, e-BIRD* and W3A, the latest addition to the company’s fleet which is planned to enter into commercial service in May. For the duration of the Olympic Games this agreement will double the EBU’s capacity leased on a full-time basis to the EBU by Eutelsat.
This additional capacity will allow the EBU to provide private direct point-to-point circuits between Athens and the headquarters of television channels that will have their own TV crews and content aggregation facilities in Athens. In addition to these private circuits, the EBU will simultaneously deliver 800 hours of live coverage of the sports events with ambient sound to its 71 members.
The distribution and exchange of programmes relating to sports events is a major part of the EBU’s activities. In view of the exceptional worldwide coverage of the Olympic Games the EBU is setting up an infrastructure fully dedicated to the event, with the deployment at the Olympic site of a new teleport to deliver a total of 36 non-stop programme feeds, 32 of which will be carried by Eutelsat.
Services from the EBU teleport in Athens will start on 2 August with technical tests. On 11 and 12 August there will be coverage of the football matches scheduled as an avant-première to the Games schedule. These will be followed on 13 August by the Opening Ceremony and the start of the Olympic events, which will continue until 29 August. The EBU’s services in Athens will also be deployed to cover the Paralympic Games from 17 to 28 September.