Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) and BBC have announced the renewal of their agreement for five years to broadcast BBC Arabic TV and radio programmes via Arabsat satellite Badr 4 at 26°E , which covers the Middle East and large parts of Europe andAfrica.
Eng. / Khalid bin Ahmed Balkhyour, President & CEO of ARABSAT, and Nigel Fry, Head of Distribution BBC Global News, both stated that they are very pleased to continue this relationship, with Fry saying that BBC channels are available to many millions of homes across the region as part of a bouquet of popular channels.
Balkhyour said that ARABSAT is currently finalizing the manufacture and launching of its 6th generation of satellites that will secure ARABSAT leadership in the satellite telecommunications and broadcasting market in the region, in addition to ARABSAT diversity of services delivered to its customers to meet all their future requirements.
On 2 Febuary Arabsat announced that it had signed a contract with the Sudanese Blue Nile Channel to join the Sudanese bouquet, broadcast from the recently built platform shared between the Sudanese Radio & Television Agency and ARABSAT. Blue Nile Channel with its wide range of diverse programming is the most viewed Sudanese channel; it broadcasts its programmes to the Sudanese platform via optical fibre.