Hot Bird (also styled HOTBIRD) is a group of

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

s operated by Eutelsat, located at 13 °E over the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can also ...

( orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. Only

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals ** Digital camera, which captures and stores digital ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

channels are transmitted by the Hot Bird constellation, both

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

and encrypted. In addition there are a few interactive and IP services. The satellites currently operate at 13° East and are numbered 13B, 13C and 13E. The satellites have been broadcasting digital-only since TV5Monde switched off its analogue signal in 2010.

List of satellites

Satellite details

Hot Bird 1

Hot Bird 1 was launched by Ariane 44LP on 28 March 1995. The 13° east slot predates the launch, with Eutelsat I F-1 having been located there as early as 1983, and EUTELSAT II F-1 having also served time at the location. It has reached end-of-life.

Hot Bird 3

Hot Bird 3 was launched by Ariane 44LP on 2 September 1997 and intended to be moved to 10°E to become Eurobird 10. During the drift from 13°E to 10°E, the satellite suffered loss of power from one solar array. It was nevertheless successfully moved to 10°E, but could only operate at a reduced capacity. Since then, it is operating at 4°E under the name Eurobird 4. At last it was moved to 75°E and renamed to ABS_1B. It has reached end-of-life.

Hot Bird 4

Hot Bird 4 was launched by Ariane 42P on 27 February 1998 and redeployed to 7°W in July 2006, becoming

Atlantic Bird Atlantic Bird was a series of satellites operated by Eutelsat over the Atlantic Ocean. In 2012 the series was merged into Eutelsat's main fleet as part of the company's rebranding. Two of the original three satellites replaced the France Telecom ...

4 /

Nilesat 103 Eutelsat 16B, formerly known as Hot Bird 4, Nilesat 103, Atlantic Bird 4, and Eurobird 16, is a communications satellite owned and operated by Eutelsat. The satellite was retired in 2015 and was moved into a graveyard orbit above the geostation ...

Hot Bird 5

Hot Bird 5 was launched by Atlas-2A on 9 October 1998 and re-located to 25.5°E and renamed Eurobird 2. Six transponders are leased to Arabsat under the name

Badr 2 Badr (Arabic: بدر) as a given name below is an Arabic masculine and feminine name given to the "full moon on its fourteenth night" or the ecclesiastical full moon. Badr may refer to: .and it is also one of the oldest and rarest names in the Arabi ...

, after having been called

Arabsat 2D The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (often abbreviated as Arabsat) is a communications satellite operator in the Arab World, headquartered in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Arabsat was created to deliver satellite-based, public and ...

Hot Bird 6 (Hot Bird 13D)

Hot Bird 6 was launched by Atlas V 401 on 21 August 2002. Starting on 12 June 2009, the day of Iranian elections, deliberate interference affecting this satellite was traced to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Hot Bird 6 is the primary carrier for BBC Persian Television. As of 2013, it was replaced by Hot Bird 10 (Hot Bird 13D).

Hot Bird 7/7A (Hot Bird 13E)

Hot Bird 7 was lost in December 2002 during the

Ariane 5 ECA Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads into ...

launch. Its replacement, Hot Bird 7A (a Spacebus 3000B3) was successfully launched on 11 March 2006. Hotbird 7A was renamed Eurobird 9A in February 2009. In December 2011 Eutelsat announced, that their satellite assets will be renamed under a unified brand name effective from March 2012. This satellite became Eutelsat 9A. In 2016 it was renamed Hotbird 13E.

Hot Bird 8 (Hot Bird 13B)

Hot Bird 8 was launched by Proton on 5 August 2006. With a launch mass of 4.9 tonnes, Hot Bird 8 is the largest and the most powerful broadcast satellite serving

Hot Bird 9 (Hot Bird 13C)

Hot Bird 9 was launched by

in December 2008. Its entry into service enabled the Hot Bird 7A satellite to be redeployed to 9° East and rebranded Eurobird 9A, increasing capacity to 38

transponders In telecommunications, a transponder is a device that, upon receiving a signal, emits a different signal in response. The term is a blend of ''transmitter'' and ''responder''. In air navigation or radio frequency identification, a flight tra ...

at this orbital position.

Hot Bird 10 (Eutelsat 33E)

Hot Bird 10 was launched by

in February 2009 with NSS-9, Spirale A and Spirale B. It was initially commissioned as Atlantic Bird 4A at 7°W. When Atlantic Bird 7 became operational, it was renamed Eutelsat 3C and was colocated with Eutelsat 3A at 3° East. Later it became Hotbird 13D and in 2016 Eutelsat 33E. This satellite is located at 33° East.

Hotbird 13F

Hotbird 13F was launched by Falcon 9 Block 5 in October 2022. The launch mass of the satellite is 4,476 kg (9,868 lb). The satellite has been produced by Airbus Defence and Space and it's based on Eurostar Neo bus. The satellite is designed to use PPS5000 plasma propulsion engine (developed by Safran and using

xenon Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...

) to get to geostationary orbit.

Hotbird 13G

Hotbird 13G was launched by Falcon 9 Block 5 in November 2022. The satellite is very similar to Hotbird 13F. Hotbird 13F and 13G are expected to replace three satellites (13B, 13C, and 13E) at orbital position 13°E, which are near end-of-life in 2022.

Packages broadcast on Hot Bird

* * Cyfrowy Polsat *

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

* Globecast * Kabelio * Platforma Canal+ * NOVA Cyprus *

NOVA Greece Nova Telecommunications S.M.S.A. is a telecommunications company in Greece which provides broadband, television and fixed telephony. It also offers satellite services in Cyprus. It is traded on the Athens Exchange until its delisting in 2021. I ...

* Orange Polska *

Sky Italia Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian satellite television platform owned by the American media conglomerate Comcast. Sky Italia also broadcasts three national free-to-air television channels: TV8, Cielo and Sky TG24. As of 2018, following an agre ...

* TéléSAT *

Tivùsat tivùsat is a free-to-air/free-to-view digital satellite television platform, launched by the joint venture between RAI, Mediaset and Telecom Italia Media, and serving Italy, Vatican City and San Marino. With the exception of international ...

* Viasat Ukraine

Free-to-air channels

Up to 1000 television and radio channels are available

References

External links

Eutelsat Satellites
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