Fibre and satellite solution ensures that Italian viewers receive a flawless broadcast of this legendary championship

Paris, 30 May 2006 – Content management and delivery company GlobeCast has been selected by Sky Italia to provide HDTV contribution for the World Cup of Football from the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Munich to Sky’s headquarters outside of Milan, Italy. This redundant solution includes both fibre and satellite contribution to ensure a seamless broadcast.

The contribution service provided by GlobeCast is an end-to-end solution including routing and transmission via fibre, as well as the provision of encoding and decoding equipment in HD.

GlobeCast will also provide HD satellite coverage as a backup for the event, using capacity on Eutelsat’s Eurobird 3 satellite at 33º East. This satellite coverage will guarantee a high level of reliability and service quality, especially with the inauguration of the latest HD-ready member of GlobeCast’s proprietary fleet of Satellite Newsgathering (SNG) vehicles. This particular truck is the first such all-HD vehicle in the Italian market.

The service package provided by GlobeCast also includes a 24 hour on-site customer support and technical assistance desk, staffed by GlobeCast’s technical experts.

GlobeCast (www.globecast.com) - a subsidiary of France Telecom - is a leading global content management and delivery company. Via its worldwide satellite and fibre network, the company manages and transports 10 million hours of video and other rich media yearly for its core customer base of broadcasters, as well as corporate, government and retail clients. The company’s global presence includes 15 teleports and technical operations centres throughout Europe, America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

Press Contacts:
Denis Gomez +33 1 55 95 26 04
Matthew Rosenstein +33 1 55 95 27 20
Robert Marking +1 212 373 5141