Satellite Direct-to-Home (DTH)

Sentech’s FREEVISION Direct-to-Home Satellite platform is an ‘open access and interoperable’ platform that provides universal access service through digital broadcasting to communities in the most remote areas of South Africa. DTH enables homes to access their Free-To-Air broadcasting and Digital Content Services via a single household ‘set-top box’. To those in the broadcasting industry, it’s a world of opportunity.

The establishment of our DTH platform was informed by Sentech’s Public Service Mandate obligations to comply with existing broadcasting policies and business imperatives regarding the company’s future sustainability in a converged digital communications network services industry.

Sentech’s DTH platform represents a necessary strategic development in South Africa’s roadmap to enhance the growth of the broadcasting sector and enrich the digital multi-channel content distribution landscape.

With the launch of the Digital Terrestrial Television (“DTT”) Network, the estimated television household reach at the full implementation stage would be 84%. The remaining 16% (+1.7m) of television households will receive digital broadcasting services through Sentech’s universal access direct-to-home satellite ‘gap-filler’ platform service as provided for in the Broadcasting Digital Migration.

Sentech operates its DTH platform, located at 68.5°E on Intelsat 20 Southern and Sub-Saharan African coverage and utilises the latest digital direct-to-home technology, with an estimated 60 million viewers. The coverage areas for the Sentech satellite channels on Intelsat 20 are displayed below: