Eutelsat is demonstrating the market roll-out of Sat.tv, its free-to-air channel and program guide, on low-cost set-top boxes and new Smart TV devices, at IBC 2023 stand 1.D59

Free-to-Air TV channels are viewed by millions of people around the world, and while the content offer has grown massively, it can be challenging both for broadcasters to target new audiences, and for viewers to find new content.

To meet this demand, Eutelsat developed Sat.tv, an electronic program guide for free-to-air TV channels. Sat.tv enables broadcasters to target specific markets at Eutelsat’s video hotspots and engage with massive audiences. It gives viewers enhanced access to more than 1000 free-to-air (FTA) television services available at Eutelsat's prime orbital positions (HOTBIRD 13° East for Europe and beyond, Eutelsat-Nilesat 7/8° West for MENA and Eutelsat 16° East for sub-Saharan Africa).

With Sat.tv, viewers can automatically install selected lists of free-to-air TV services available at an orbital position, whether by country or choice of language, find channels by their logo or theme, and view all the enriched information about the programs to be broadcast on these channels.

Enabling this advanced user experience for millions of homes, Sat.tv is available on a growing range of low-cost set-top boxes, thank to its integration by leading chipset manufacturer NationalChip, which equips a major part of mass market set-top boxes, notably in the MENA region. This functionality that revolutionizes the free-to-air television experience has been already adopted by many manufacturers (Bestsat, Patthana, Reako, Redline, TDX, Trigon, Xsquare, etc.) and leading brands (Daly Export, Dreamsat, Echolink, Ismart, Istar, Lion, Maestro, Matrix, Vision, etc.)

In addition, to extend availability of the Sat.tv service to the increasing installed base of Smart TVs (TV sets with an integrated satellite tuner), Eutelsat has selected the DVB-I standard as an open and future-proof solution, for a more user-friendly FTA satellite broadcasting experience within the new generations of Smart TV devices. At IBC, Eutelsat will be presenting a demo of its Sat.tv service working on DVB-I, through a POC demonstration based on the latest DVB-I standard specifications. The technical partners of the Sat.tv DVB-I POC are ONSCREEN PUBLISHING (meta data back-end and DVB-I entry-point management) and VESTEL and TP VISION (Smart TVs with native DVB-I client). The Sat.tv DVI-I demo will also be available on the DVB stand, 1.B73, at IBC.