GlobeCast makes €2m upgrade for extended UEFA deal

Broadcast services provider GlobeCast has expanded its deal with football body UEFA to provide HD coverage of the Champions League and HD and SD coverage of the UEFA Europa League.

As a result, GlobeCast has made an investment of over €2m in HD upgrades for its two UK sites. For the UEFA Champions League, GlobeCast has partnered with Israeli-based Satlink to deliver all games in HD to 26 territories across the Americas and Asia each night of the competition, which runs from mid August to May. Up to eight games per night will be downlinked in HD from the Eutelsat W2A and Eutelsat W3A satellites using a range of new Tandberg RX 1290 receivers. For broadcast across the Americas, GlobeCast will convert all eight games using Snell & Wilcox Alchemist frame-rate converters. For Asia, Africa and the Middle East, two feeds will be uplinked to the IS904 satellite and the other six out of Satlink in Israel to the Asiasat 2 satellite for downlink by rights holders across the region.

For the UEFA Europa League, GlobeCast and Satlink will provide downlink, capacity and uplink services in SD for the early stages and the same in HD for the later stages of the competition.