http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=1&article=22428<br /><br />Russian TV heads down under<br /><br />Australian viewers are to be treated to a foursome of Russian TV channels, <br />as France Telecom-owned GlobeCast Australia inks a carriage deal with <br />Horizon World Plus TV.<br /><br />The deal puts Russian networks RTVi, Teleklub/Detski Mir, Nashe Kino and RTR <br />Planeta on the PanGlobal TV direct-to-home satellite platform in Australia, <br />via the Australia beam of PanAmSat's PAS 8 Pacific Ocean Region satellite.<br /><br />The Russian services are the first bouquet of programming to be launched on <br />the two-month-old PanGlobal satellite platform, and will initially be <br />available free-to-air but encrypted by the end of the year. These channels <br />are intended to keep Russian immigrants in touch with their homeland.<br /><br />PanGlobal, a joint marketing venture between PanAmSat and GlobeCast <br />Australia, reaches some 60k homes among Australia's multicultural <br />communities, which total some 5m viewers.<br /><br />When the service launched in September, PanAmSat vp of Asia-Pac, David Ball <br />said: "International customers looking to distribute their programming to <br />Australia's vibrant pay-TV market will be able to access an established DTH <br />neighborhood of more than 60k homes, where the necessary antennas have <br />already been deployed. This is the ideal opportunity to reach a fast-growing <br />market."<br /><br />9 Nov 2004