Orange confirmed it has chosen Eutelsat's Hot Bird and Atlantic Bird 3 satellites, to broadcast by satellite its TV services, part of its triple play offer where it is not accessible via ADSL.
Orange's triple play (bundled TV, phone and Internet access) customers will need to install a dish for direct-to-home (DTH) reception. They will also need a decoder to interface with the livebox (Orang'e branded set-top box) to receive the services via an ADSL connection. The company says the process will be transparent for users.
The satellite broadcasting of Orange TV's programmes will be launched from Eutelsat's two satellites simultaneously this summer. 13 degrees East and 5 degrees West. In terms of the French market, these two neighbourhoods already reach an installed base of 4.8 million DTH antennas. The 5 degrees West location will give Orange TV the potential to achieve high penetration in rural areas: French homes beyond range of terrestrial reception have long pointed their antennas in that direction to receive analogue TV channels,