MUMBAI: British Telecom's (BT) media and broadcast division has inked an agreement with news broadcaster NDTV to be its global network supplier. This will enable the distribution of NTDV to the pay TV platforms BSkyB and DirecTV in the UK and US respectively. This is part of NDTV's global growth strategy. BT will carry the live NDTV news bulletins to multiple platforms on its state of art network specially rolled out for television and media companies.

BT GM, client management Asia Pacific and EMEA Deepakjit Singh Chatrath said, "We are indeed excited about fuelling a certain part of NDTV's global growth plans. This is indeed an excellent opportunity for BT to showcase its network especially in terms of resiliency, security and a round the clock global service. We are confident of building this relationship as a benchmark for today's broadcast industry."

BT presently down links the signal at UK from the PAS 10 satellite, and then carries it over its Media - IP network to BskyB's platform in UK. This also includes bringing the signal to the BT Tower and making it fit for the U.S. viewer and then transporting the signal to the DirecTV platform in Los Angeles for it to be broadcasted over the DirecTV's US platform. BT also takes care of repurposing the formats and other services for the US market.

BT already has implemented the carriage of signal to BskyB platform and to DirecTV is planned for launch by end of July.

NDTV CTO Rahul Deshpande said, "For today's broadcasters the big business goal is globalisation. We have chosen BT as it offers a suite of services such as world class security, end to end network monitoring and water-tight service agreements that have been built into BT's IP network".

BT's Media & Broadcast Media-IP network is the only IP network which can connect the customer to multiple platforms across many countries without getting out of the network.