NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOX INTERNATIONAL CHANNELS PARTNER WITH MEASAT TO EXPAND ITS CHANNEL DISTRIBUTION ACROSS ASIA PACIFIC, THE MIDDLE-EAST AND AFRICA
KUALA LUMPUR, 2 JULY, 2008 – MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn. Bhd. ("MEASAT") and Fox International Channels, fully-owned business unit of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV), today announced the agreement for FOXCRIME and FX to be distributed on MEASAT-operated satellite to PayTV operators across Asia Pacific, the Middle-East and Africa. Both channels would be distributed via the MEASAT- 3 satellite platforms.
Fox Crime is an entertainment channel entirely dedicated to crime and investigation now available in Singapore and Hong Kong. Fox Crime programming kicks off this summer with an extremely strong line-up of predominantly Asia premieres including Dexter 2, The Killpoint, NCIS, Burn Notice, Brotherhood and the award winning CSI franchise.
FX is an alternative, irreverent and eclectic channel, a channel with attitude appealing to a mainly modern male audience. FX’s exclusive content feature many Asia premieres in a genre that allows our early adopting viewers an escape from the main stream with a host of new shows like Peep Show, Californication, The Riches, Saving Grace, Mad Men and Alias.
Mr Zubin Gandevia, Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Fox International Channels Asia said, “Our partnership with MEASAT has given us the opportunity to introduce our Fox Crime and FX channels much more readily throughout Asia Pacific, India, the Middle East and Africa, thus bringing more viewers closer to these channels that have been hugely successful in all markets where we have launched, and are packed with Asia premieres.”
Commenting on the agreement, Terry Bleakley, Vice President - Sales and Marketing, MEASAT said, “We are excited to be able to support the distribution of these high profile channels via the MEASAT-3 distribution platform. With the launch of MEASAT-3a into the same orbital location later this year, providing additional capacity and satellite network redundancy, we continue to invest to ensure that MEASAT provides the satellite platform of choice for the region’s leading channels.”
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About MEASAT
MEASAT is a premium supplier of satellite communication services to Asia’s leading broadcasters, DTH platforms and telecom operators. With the recent commissioning of AFRICASAT-1, the MEASAT fleet is able to provide satellite capacity over 145 countries representing 80% of the world’s population across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Australia. The fleet will be further enhanced in 2008 with the launch of MEASAT-3a, providing additional capacity and in-orbit redundancy at the 91.5E orbital video slot.
Leveraging facilities at the MEASAT Teleport and Broadcast Centre, and working with a select group of world-class partners, MEASAT also provides a complete range of broadcast and telecommunications services including high definition and standard definition video playout, video turnaround, collocation, uplinking and IP termination services.
For more information, please visit www.measat.com
About Fox International Channels
Fox International Channels (FIC), a unit on Fox Entertainment Group is the wholly-owned global pay television subsidiary of News Corporation. FIC develops and distributes wholly- and majority-owned television channels in all markets across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. With a stable of 18 channel brands, FIC broadcasts over 58 television services in 29 languages.
These networks and their related mobile, non-linear and high-definition extensions reach over 350 million subscribing households worldwide.
(In Asia, Fox International Channels is managed by NGC Network Asia, LLC.)
For more information, please contact:
MEASAT Satellite Systems Elaine Zarina +60 3 8213 2153/ [email protected]
Fox International Channels Basil Chua, Marketing Director +65 6325 3848/ [email protected]