SPI International/Filmbox taps SES for Latin American push

Satellite operator SES has signed a multi-year capacity deal with channel provider SPI International/Filmbox Channels Group that will support the latter’s drive to expand its presence in the Latin American market.

SES is providing C-band capacity on the NSS-806 satellite at 47.5° West, which covers South America with a single beam and claims to reach about 90% of the continent’s pay TV subscribers.

SPI’s channels will ultimately migrate to the new SES-14 satellite, which is scheduled for launch this year and will replace the NSS-806 craft.

SPI will broadcast  a raft of channels to cable operators and DTH providers from the US. The channel group will bring up to 10 HD channels to the region: FightBox HD, FashionBox HD, DocuBox HD, Fast&FunBox HD, 360TuneBox HD, FilmBox Art House, Gametoon, NatureVision TV, Erox HD and Eroxxx HD.

“For over 25 years, we have been a leading supplier of theatrical films and television programming in the international market and, with SES expertise, we will be able to get closer to our target audience in Latin America. As one of the largest aggregators of native Ultra HD content in the world, we expect that in the near future our partnership with SES will enable us to expand our HD offering in Latin America with content in the new TV format,” said Loni Farhi, President of SPI International/Filmbox Channels Group.

“We are very pleased to start this relationship with SPI, and we are looking forward to bringing its HD content to new audiences,” said Jurandir Pitsch, VP of sales for South Latin America at SES.

“SPI will benefit from NSS-806’s high penetration of DTH and cable head-ends in Latin America. This partnership demonstrates that satellite remains the ideal infrastructure to deliver high picture quality content to a large audience, either directly or by feeding cable headends.”