11.03 Europe/London, September 16, 2011 By Chris Dziadul
The Russian DTH platform Orion Express has provided details about its future plans following last weeks deal with Intelsat.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, the Horizons 2 satellite will be moved to 85 degrees East and up to 10 of its transponders used for TV services.
They, coupled with existing capacity on Intelsat 15, will allow the platform to not only increase the number of channels it distributes to 150 but also become the leading DTH provider of HD services.
Furthermore, subscribers to the Continent TV and Telekarta offers will be able to obtain a HD receiver for R500 (11.9).
Orion Express says that although it employs DVB-S2 and MPEG-4, it will expand its channel offer using DVB-S and MPEG-2, making more channels available in the Telekarta service.
Furthermore, the additional capacity will allow it to introduced a number of features including home cinema, VOD and an advanced EPG.
Corporate clients will meanwhile be offered such services VSAT-delivered internet access.
Orion Express operates three satellite-delivered platforms Orion Express, Continent TV and Telekarta and claims its services are received in 6 million Russian cable homes.
