THE HAGUE, Netherlands, February 4, 2005 – New Skies Satellites B.V., the global satellite communications company, today announced that the company is supporting the U.S. Department of Defense’s American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) with occasional-use and restoration services across three satellites, the NSS-5, NSS-6 and NSS-7 spacecraft.
Specifically, AFRTS is using the NSS-6 and NSS-7 satellites to transmit coverage of ongoing U.S. disaster relief efforts throughout Southeast Asia from Thailand back to the United States. AFRTS also has been using the NSS-7 satellite since November 2003 to deliver coverage of U.S. service men and women working in Iraq.
AFRTS uses this capacity to transmit live press conferences from Baghdad as well as live video for major events such as the NFL’s Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005, showing U.S. troops watching the event. Providing a "touch of home," the footage will be broadcast by FOX Sports as part of the overall Super Bowl coverage to be delivered worldwide and via AFRTS to U.S. service men and women, DoD civilians, and their families located in 177 countries around the world.
In addition, New Skies has been providing satellite restoration services in support of AFRTS on the NSS-5 and NSS-6 satellites following the failure of AFRTS’ primary Pacific satellite transmission platform on January 14. AFRTS is uplinking nine television and 12 radio channels to the NSS-5 Pacific Ocean region satellite for transmission to New Skies’ partner mediaport facility in Hong Kong, where it is redistributed to broadcast, cable and direct-to-home television systems throughout Japan and South Korea via NSS-6. The restoration services ensure that more than 180,000 U.S. service personnel and their families have access to all of AFRTS’ news, sports and entertainment programming.
Mel Russell, director of AFRTS, said: “New Skies has been a very valuable resource for our worldwide video backhaul and distribution requirements. The coverage and capacity on these three satellites is critical to our mission.”
Stephen Wilson, New Skies’ vice president of sales for North America, said: “New Skies is honored to be supporting AFRTS by providing the satellite capacity and transmission services AFRTS requires during this critical period. These services will help to maintain the information and cultural link provided by AFRTS’ high-quality news and entertainment programming, upon which American military personnel in Asia and around the world depend for situational awareness and that “touch of home."
Robert Turner, New Skies’ director of government services, added: “New Skies was selected for these projects on the basis of its high-quality, flexible and cost-effective technical solutions. We are delighted to provide these services in support of AFRTS' vision and mission. This gives us yet another opportunity to demonstrate our ability to provide mission critical services in support of government agencies."
About AFRTS
AFRTS is the American Forces Radio and Television Service. It is part of the Department of Defense, and is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. The AFRTS mission is to communicate Department of Defense policies, priorities, programs, goals and initiatives. AFRTS provides stateside radio and television programming, "a touch of home," to U.S. service men and women, DoD civilians, and their families serving outside the continental United States.
The AFRTS mission is to provide multi-channel broadcast quality radio and television services and expanded internal information products to all DoD members and their families stationed overseas, on contingency operations, and onboard Navy ships around the world. Today, AFRTS uses eight satellites along with digital compression technology to provide multiple television and stereo audio services to over 1,000 outlets in more than 177 countries and U.S. territories, and on board U.S. Navy ships.
About New Skies Satellites
New Skies Satellites is one of only four fixed satellite communications companies with truly global satellite coverage, offering data, video, Internet and voice communications services to a range of telecommunications carriers, broadcasters, large corporations, Internet service providers and government entities around the world. New Skies has five satellites in orbit and ground facilities around the world. The company also has secured certain rights to make use of additional orbital positions for future growth. New Skies is headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, and has offices in Hong Kong, New Delhi, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney and Washington, D.C.
