Bulgaria’s Vivacom expands into Africa with Eutelsat

Bulgarian operator Vivacom is expanding its video business into Africa after agreeing a multi-year contract with Eutelsat.

Vivacom has leased C-band capacity on the Eutelsat 8 West B satellite, with an ambition to provide contribution services for international channels that want to be carried by major African pay TV operators.

The first six channels are already being uplinked to Eutelsat 8 West B from Bulgaria using Vivacom’s Plana teleport, which is also one of Eutelsat’s partner teleports.

“Through our Plana teleport, we offer channels end-to-end solutions for signal acquisition, encoding, encryption, uplink and downlink via satellite with excellent quality and reliability,” said Vladimir Rangelov, senior manager, broadcasting services, Vivacom.

“This contract adds new value for our customers by giving them access to the African market and marks another milestone in a collaboration with Eutelsat that we look forward to pursuing.”

Eutelsat’s chief commercial and development officer, Michel Azibert, said: “This contract consolidates our Eutelsat 8 West B satellite as a major platform for highly reliable contribution services into the African market. It is a first step to support Vivacom’s development into Africa.”

Eutelsat are exhibiting at IBC in hall 1, stand D59