SatLink provides SPORTFIVE with European gateway for Africa Cup of Nations football

Spacecom has been selected to provide broadcast services on AMOS-5 at 17°E for the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) Orange Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Africa’s bi-annual football championship competition. The competition is being hosted by Equatorial Guinea and kicked off Saturday 17 January.

SatLink Communications, a teleport, content management and HD playout services provider is providing SPORTFIVE Africa, a subsidiary of Lagardère Sports, with AMOS 5 C-band capacity to uplink directly from the game venue in Equatorial Guinea. In addition, SatLink’s teleport will provide all ground services for the contribution of the tournament to Asia and Europe

All games will be broadcast in high definition (via the AMOS-5 pan-African C-band. The tournament will be played by 16 national teams at four sites in Equatorial Guinea culminating in the championship game from Bata.

AMOS-5 at 17°E is a prime mover of African sporting events. It transmitted the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games from London to Africa, the South African Super Rugby Games and the Nedbank Golf Challenge, Africa’s top international golf tournament. AMOS-5 provides HD transmission of sporting events on both ad hoc and occasional use bases.

“Around the world, sport events are popular entertainment. The Orange AFCON competition is becoming more and more celebrated due to the increasing importance of African football on the world’s pitches,” remarked Eyal Copitt, Spacecom’s senior vice president of sales for Africa and Asia and marketing. “With significant worldwide interest for the tournament, we are happy to play an important and central role of providing the most effective solution for this international event.”