The renewal will see Arabsat carry all of Rotana’s 14 HD exclusively while eight other SD channels will be carried on a non-exclusive basis.
Saudi-owned media network Rotana Group, which runs the majority of its broadcast technical operations from its headquarters in Egypt, has renewed its long-standing strategic partnership with Arabsat for another three years.
The renewal will see Arabsat carry all of Rotana’s 14 HD exclusively while eight other SD channels will be carried on a non-exclusive basis.
Rotana has a total of 26 channels, of which four are encrypted and also available on other platforms.
The agreement was signed between Eng. Alhamedi Alanezi, newly appointed CEO of Arabsat, and Dr Walid Arab Hashem, CEO and Vice President of the Rotana Group, at CABSAT this year.
Rotana has taken two transponders from Arabsat, one of which carries its HD channels and the other, its SD channels.
This new deal will also see Rotana extending the interactivity for HD and SD channels through Arabsat.
“We have embedded HPPTV interactivity transmission only on Arabsat as well as added ad replacement features,” Dr Naser Refaat, CTO of Rotana Media Group told BroadcastPro ME.
“All FAST (Ad replacement/DAI) features will be available, allowing us to replace ads based on territory and content. Moreover, HbbTV gives us the edge in monitoring our programming grids and testing the performance of our content for each channel in real-time. It will allow us to monetise this through interactive pop-ups ads, and opens a new interactive dimension in the satellite distribution space,” he added.
