Russia’s General Satellite in Pakistan pay TV plan

Russian satellite reception equipment provider General Satellite is to invest in a new pay TV platform for Pakistan.

According to General Satellite, the new platform will be targeted at a wealthy segment of the population, with the aim of attracting one million subscribers by 2020.

According to Russian reports, the platform will likely be created via a joint venture with a local partner with an existing satellite licence, given that the Pakistan government has said it will not issue new licences.

Kaliningrad-based General Satellite, which provides the technology platform for Russia’s leading DTH provider Tricolor TV, joined the board of the Russian Business Council for Cooperation with Pakistan at the end of December, and the company’s director of foreign broadcasting projects, Sergey Dolgopolsky, became that organisation’s vice-president.

In July last year, General Satellite announced the first of what it then said was a series of planned international pay TV ventures in Cambodia, in partnership with Cambodia’s Royal Group. Dolgopolsky said at the time that the company planned to launch a number of broadcasting ventures in territories including Pakistan, Bangladesh, other Asian countries, the CIS and English-speaking Africa.