MUMBAI: PanAmSat, a major provider of global video and data broadcasting services via satellite has announced a 10-year transponder lease agreement with the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the world's largest religious media organisation. 

The agreement, the second EWTN has signed with PanAmSat in the past four months, is for content distribution throughout Africa and the Indian Ocean Region on the PAS-10 Indian Ocean Region satellite. In its 21st year, EWTN has become the largest religious media network in the world, transmitting programming to more than 75 million homes in 100 countries and territories on cable systems, wireless cable, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS), low power TV and individual satellite users, says an official release. EWTN currently uses capacity on PanAmSat's Galaxy IR, Galaxy XI, Galaxy XR, PAS-3R, PAS-8 and PAS-9 satellites. According to the release, PanAmSat announced in April that EWTN had entered into a new lease agreement for one 36 MHz c-band transponder for follow-on capacity on the Galaxy IRR satellite for US domestic distribution.

With this agreement, PanAmSat now transmits EWTN to more than 98 per cent of the world's population, the release says. The PAS-10 satellite, located at 68.5 degrees east longitude, is a Boeing-built 601 HP model satellite with 24 C-band and 24 Ku-band transponders. The satellite's expansive footprint covers Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Asia. PAS-10's C-band customers include the BBC, CNN, CCTV, Discovery, Doordarshan, ESPN, MTV, NHK, Nickelodeon and Sony. PAS-10's Ku-band payload contains multiple high-powered beams focused on Africa, Europe, India, the Middle East, Central and Western Asia as well as Northeast Asia.