Intelsat Inks Deal for Exclusive Satellite Delivery of PBS Content

PBS
(Image credit: PBS)

MCLEAN, Va.—Satellite operator Intelsat recently started delivering Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) educational, music and arts content across the continental United States, as part of an exclusive satellite distribution agreement, the company announced last week at the NAB Show.

Starting earlier this year, Intelsat’s Galaxy 16 Ku-band satellite started delivering iconic PBS content to 156 broadcast affiliates reaching an audience of nearly 50 million primetime viewers.

“As America’s largest public media enterprise, PBS trusts Intelsat to reliably deliver on their crucial mission of providing high-quality programming to their member stations across the continental United States,” said Pascale Fromont, Vice President and General Manager of Media for Intelsat. “With the addition of PBS to the Intelsat family, all major broadcasters in the U.S. are utilizing the Intelsat fleet for content delivery.”

Located at 99W, the performance and reach of Galaxy 16 into North America were key factors in PBS’s selection of Intelsat to meet its distribution needs. Intelsat says its Galaxy fleet is the most comprehensive in North America, serving 123 million TV households.

In addition to satellite, PBS also distributes programming via fiber to some of its member stations, particularly those in urban areas. 

Tom Butts

Tom has covered the broadcast technology market for the past 25 years, including three years handling member communications for the National Association of Broadcasters followed by a year as editor of Video Technology News and DTV Business executive newsletters for Phillips Publishing. In 1999 he launched digitalbroadcasting.com for internet B2B portal Verticalnet. He is also a charter member of the CTA's Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. Since 2001, he has been editor-in-chief of TV Tech (www.tvtech.com), the leading source of news and information on broadcast and related media technology and is a frequent contributor and moderator to the brand’s Tech Leadership events.