CAIRO: Egypt is planning to begin broadcasting its third satellite television network in the coming year. Before that, however, the country is literally launching a new satellite into space on Friday in the French city of Cannes in order to get the satellite into the Earth's orbit. The new satellite is to be called Nile Sat 201, after the already existing Nile Sat 101 and 102, respectively. The newer channel to be “launched” on Friday is looking to expand on the already existing channel capacity. According to a statement from the government, the new channel will have a much larger capacity than the two other channels, which have around 300 channels each. An official said that the new satellite will “hopefully move toward unifying all viewers under one network.” Egypt launched its first satellite into space in April 1998, which initially carried only 84 digital television channels and 400 radio stations. The second satellite was launched in July 2000, and provided another 84 digital channels. The capacity of both satellites was expanded shortly thereafter and are currently broadcasting nearly 300 channels. The Egyptian Minister of Information Anas al-Fiki said that the third Egyptian Satellite would join the current satellites “in broadcasting” next year. Fiki stressed that the launching of Nile Sat 201 comes as a strategic objective of the Egyptian media and that launching the satellite with a French rocket, is a sign of “a culmination of an important phase in the Egyptian-French cooperation in the field of communication technologies.” He pointed out that the government did not bear any financial or economic burden to finance the satellite, as it was funded by the Egyptian Company for satellites, or Nile Sat, whose Chairman Amin Bassiouni confirmed that the new satellite “will help to broaden the base of the audio-visual communication in the Middle East and Africa.” Ahmed Anis, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Radio and Television Union, stressed that “the new satellite supports the plans of the Egyptian media in putting all Egyptian channels on the satellite frequencies to increase its circulation and so that citizens can have better access for watching it.” The satellite is scheduled to launch, to viewers, in June 2010, after the completion of the setup process and equipment. The Egyptian government had signed the contract for manufacture and supply of the satellite with the French company Thales. **reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam BM
