SES and JioStar signed a multi-year agreement on September 21 under which JioStar will move its television-channel distribution to SES’s IS-20 satellite, extending delivery to cable systems, direct-to-home platforms and other broadcast networks across India and the wider Indian subcontinent. The companies did not disclose the contract’s value, capacity commitment or exact duration.
The agreement places JioStar’s channel portfolio on an established geostationary broadcast platform designed to provide consistent regional coverage. SES said the transition will support the delivery of JioStar programming to millions of households while giving the media company access to a more resilient distribution system across India and South Asia.
IS-20 operates from the 68.5 degrees east orbital position and carries C-band and Ku-band capacity. The satellite serves an established video neighborhood spanning India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa, supporting broadcasters, media companies, telecommunications operators and government customers.
SES describes the orbital position as a major cable-distribution platform for the Asia-Pacific market, with extensive penetration among Indian multi-system operators and local cable operators. This installed reception base is commercially important because broadcasters can add or relocate channels without requiring every downstream cable headend to install equipment aimed at a new orbital position.
C-band capacity is commonly used for professional television contribution and distribution because of its broad coverage and relatively strong resistance to rain attenuation. Ku-band supports higher-power regional services and smaller receiving antennas, including direct-to-home television. IS-20’s digital payload allows SES to allocate capacity more flexibly between broadcast and connectivity applications while maintaining service redundancy.
Deepak Mathur, president of SES’s media business, said the platform would allow JioStar to serve audiences across India and neighboring markets while building on the companies’ existing relationship. Rajat Nigam, JioStar’s head of technology and media operations, said the agreement would support the continued distribution of the company’s television channels to millions of homes.
JioStar operates one of South Asia’s largest television and streaming businesses. The company says its television network and streaming service together reach more than 800 million viewers each week. Maintaining wide linear-TV distribution remains important despite the rapid growth of streaming, particularly where cable and satellite television continue to provide mass-market access to entertainment, news and live sports.
The contract also demonstrates the continuing commercial importance of geostationary video capacity within SES’s broader multi-orbit strategy. SES has expanded its connectivity portfolio through medium Earth orbit services and its acquisition of Intelsat, but established GEO broadcast neighborhoods retain an advantage for distributing the same television signal simultaneously to large numbers of cable headends and direct-to-home receivers.
Unlike individual internet streams, satellite broadcasting does not require additional space-segment capacity for every new viewer. A single uplink can be received throughout the satellite footprint, making GEO distribution efficient for national and regional channels serving large concurrent audiences.
The next operational step will be the migration of JioStar’s services to IS-20 and coordination with affiliated cable, DTH and broadcast networks to maintain channel availability during the transition. SES and JioStar did not provide a timetable for completing that process.
