[April 12, 2016]

Rai and Eutelsat Team up in Italy for Record Number of Live Ultra HD Broadcasts of Euro 2016 Matches

Regulatory News:

Rai, Italy's national public broadcaster and Eutelsat (News - Alert) (Paris:ETL) are teaming up to deliver unprecedented live coverage of premium sport in Ultra HD. Following an agreement between the two companies, seven matches of the Euro 2016 championship will be offered to Italian TV homes receiving Tivùsat, the free-to-view platform distributed by satellite from Eutelsat's HOT BIRD video neighbourhood. The initiative with Eutelsat marks Rai's most ambitious foray into Ultra HD that represents the next big leap forward in broadcasting.

Unprecedented Ultra HD broadcasts
The live broadcasts of European Championship matches constitute Italy's most significant satellite broadcast of live sport in Ultra HD and prefigure the launch of regular channels. They begin on 30 June, with the first match of the quarter-finals, followed on 1, 2 and 3 July by the other quarter final matches. The semi-finals will be broadcast in Ultra HD on 6 and 7 July with the final scheduled for 10 July.

Viewers equipped with an Ultra HD screen and a CAM certified by Tivùsat will be able to watch the matches by tuning to the number of the special channel to be activated by Tivùsat for the championship. Take-up of Ultra HD screens in Italy is accelerating, with ANITEC, the Italian association representing the ICT industry, forecasting that sales will surpass one million units by end 2016.

The special broadcasts also involve the support of industry-leading technology partners, including V-Nova from the UK that will provide the P.Lik 4K, a software-based contribution encoding and decoding system that will contribute the highest signal quality from the International Broadcasting Centre to be located in Paris.

Rai roster of 11 channels broadcasting in HD by satellite by end 2016
Eutelsat and Rai are also collaborating on the complete upscale to HD of 11 Rai channels broadcast by satellite. Five channels are already available in HD via Tivùsat (Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai Sport 1 and Rai 4), to be joined in May by Rai Movie and Rai Premium. The complete upgrade will be achieved by end 2016.

About Eutelsat Communications
Established in 1977, Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is one of the world's leading and most experienced operators of communications satellites. The company provides capacity on 40 satellites to clients that include broadcasters and broadcasting associations, pay-TV operators, video, data and Internet service providers, enterprises and government agencies. Eutelsat's satellites provide ubiquitous coverage of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas, enabling video, data, broadband and government communications to be established irrespective of a user's location. Headquartered in Paris, with offices and teleports around the globe, Eutelsat represents a workforce of 1,000 men and women from 37 countries who are experts in their fields and work with clients to deliver the highest quality of service.

For more about Eutelsat please visit www.eutelsat.com

www.eutelsat.fr - Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @Eutelsat_SA and Facebook (News - Alert) Eutelsat.SA

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160412005622/en/

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