The new agreement will continue to see SES broadcast Welt and N24 Doku, two channels that are owned by WeltN24.
WeltN24, a subsidiary of Axel Springer, will be launching a new free-to-air high-definition (HD) channel called BILD – in August via SES’ prime ASTRA neighbourhood 19.2 degrees East in a new multi-year capacity agreement.
The new agreement will continue to see SES broadcast Welt and N24 Doku, two channels that are owned by WeltN24. BILD TV will be the third TV channel to be distributed via SES’s ASTRA satellites. Additionally, SES will provide signal uplink and playout services for the latest news channel.
The new free-to-air TV channel BILD will be available in HD via SES’s prime TV neighbourhood of ASTRA 19.2 degrees East at frequency 10.964,25 MHz as of August 22.
The TV channel will focus on the live broadcasting segment BILD Live, which will cover news and current affairs from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. On Sunday, BILD Live will broadcast sports content from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. BILD Live can be viewed in parallel on N24 Doku, WELT’s timeshift channel. The programming of BILD will continue to expand with documentaries, reports, live shows and talk shows on politics, sports and entertainment among many other topics.
Speaking about the deal, Christoph Mühleib, Managing Director of ASTRA Deutschland GmbH, part of SES, said: “Going to the bakery and grabbing the BILD newspaper first thing in the morning is a daily ritual for many people in Germany. We are proud to help our longstanding partner Axel Springer SE expand their TV offering with this notable addition. Together, we will take BILD headlines into German living rooms with our satellites: BILD on TV, just as people know it.”
Frank Hoffmann, Managing Director of WeltN24, added: “BILD is one of the biggest European brands in the media sector. Therefore it´s essential for us to be easily accessible to our audience via all channels, as soon as the channel launches.”