MUMBAI: Asiasat has entered into a contract with Fox International Channels (Fic) to provide one-stop broadcast service including compression, uplink, play-out service, monitoring, maintenance and troubleshooting for the broadcaster‘s HD and SD channels at Asiasat‘s earth station in Tai Po, Hong Kong.

A new broadcast centre staffed by Asiasat was established to host Fic‘s equipment and to provide 24x7 broadcast operations for the FIC channel bouquet available across Asia and the Middle East.

The channels in the FIC network, which feature Chinese and Hollywood movies, US TV series, documentaries and Asian entertainment, are delivered in both HD and SD formats to 13 markets in these two regions, reaching over 550 million cumulative viewers. The operations were previously handled by FIC out of its Hunghom location.

By outsourcing the broadcast operations to Asiasat, Fic can focus more on its core business of expanding its channel portfolio across genres, and launching channels and services faster in current and emerging markets in Asia.

Fox International Channels VP, broadcast technical operations Victor Chan said, "Outsourcing our broadcast operations to a capable service provider like Asiasat improves Fox International Channels‘ operational efficiency, and enables us to focus on our core competency by taking first-to-market advantage to launch and market channels. Asiasat is our long-term partner in Asia. This agreement further expands our existing collaboration in achieving total reliability and quality control in the broadcast of our services across the regions".

Asiasat president, CEO William Wade said, "We are very pleased to provide this additional valuable service to Fox International Channels, Asiasat‘s long standing customer. We are proud to play an expanding role in Fic‘s distribution service in Asia by offering space and ground infrastructure solutions that address their broadcast needs, now and in the future".