South Africa's signal broadcaster Sentech has signed an agreement with Intelsat to use the satellite provider's infrastructure for the provision of Direct-to-Home (DTH) services and Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) to South African customers.

Sentech said it will use Ku-band capacity on the Intelsat 20 satellite to expand and enhance its DTH and DTT services in Africa, in a cost-effective manner.

The Intelsat 20 satellite will provide Sentech with a selection of nearly 500 channels, 31 of which are high definition.

Sentech said the strength of Intelsat's services will allow the company to maximise its efficiency, and provide DTH as well as national DTT programming to South African viewers using a single, multiplexed transmission.

"Sentech is committed to providing comprehensive digital delivery services to Africa and ensuring that our customers have access to high quality, reliable and differentiated content," said Leago Takalani, executive for technology at Sentech.

"As the rest of the continent continues the migration to DTT, the power of Intelsat 20 will enable us to efficiently deliver digital services to the largest number of viewers as well as expand our customer base. Most importantly, it will enable us to enhance our channel selection and deliver more affordable, entertaining programming to viewers across multiple channels throughout South Africa," Takalani said.

Intelsat claims its Intelsat 20 satellite has the power to reach more customers across Africa than any other DTH provider.

"Intelsat 20 reaches more viewers in Africa than any other DTH platform, making it an ideal video neighbourhood to support Sentech's growing business needs," said Rhys Morgan, interim sales manager for Africa at Intelsat.

"Our ability to support and deploy both DTH and DTT transmissions will enable Sentech to continue its customers' seamless migration to DTT. It will also provide Sentech with a greater array of more affordable entertainment options to delight both existing and new customers."