LONDON 9 May, 2011 – GlobeCast and Japan International Broadcasting Inc. announce that NHK World HD has launched today on the Sky and Freesat platforms in the UK. GlobeCast provides re-encoding, uplink and capacity on Eurobird 1, bringing the channel to a new community of over ten million Sky subscribers, and over a million Freesat viewers.

Available on Sky EPG channel 507, NHK World HD is a 24/7 English language channel produced by Japan International Broadcasting (JIB) and NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, fed live from Tokyo.

The NHK WORLD HD feed is downlinked in France at GlobeCast’s Bercenay and Sainte Assise teleports, and sent via fibre on GlobeCast’s backbone network (GCBN) to the London operations centre, where the video is re-encoded and AC3 audio is added. The channel is then uplinked to the Eurobird 1 satellite for the Sky platform.

GlobeCast already provides turnaround and satellite capacity for NHK WORLD TV in standard-definition format, as well as delivering NHK WORLD in HD on a number of IP platforms in Europe.

With two of the world’s three largest economies located in Asia, NHK WORLD TV delivers a unique geographic and cultural perspective on important developments in this highly influential region. The recent crisis in Japan resulting from its greatest natural disaster proved the value of NHK WORLD TV and provided an invaluable service to people throughout the world. Powerful HD images and information about fast changing events were broadcast live on NHK WORLD TV to an audience of over 137 million potential households in more than 120 countries.

Hatsuhisa Takashima, President and CEO of Japan International Broadcasting (JIB) comments, “The live video coverage of the great earthquake and Tsunami which hit Eastern Japan on March 11 displayed the power of HD television extensively. Now we are able to make this state of the art technology and powerful English language news coverage available to the television viewers in the UK through our partnership between GlobeCast and JIB. I am sure that NHK WORLD in HD will bring evidence of Japan’s recovery from this history-making natural disaster in the months and years ahead to the eyes of British people. Their compassion and generous assistance extended to the victims and has been greatly appreciated by the Japanese people.”

JIB, a subsidiary of NHK, is the exclusive distributor of NHK World HD throughout the world. NHK has news-gathering operations throughout Japan, Asia, and elsewhere around the world, including 30 international news bureaus. Newsline, focusing on news events in Asia and the world, airs live from Tokyo at the top of every hour. Additional original content including business, technology, fashion, food, travel and other cultural programs designed for global audiences, are broadcast in four-hour cycles suited to time zones around the world.