An artist's concept of PAS-9 orbiting Earth. Photo: Hughes

When the national football teams from Chile and Spain, two contenders for Olympic gold, faced off in Melbourne, Australia, millions of viewers throughout the two countries, and most of Latin America, were able to watch the action thanks to PanAmSat's brand new PAS-9 satellite.

The Atlantic Ocean Region spacecraft, which launched on July 28, 2000, commenced transmissions five weeks later, just in time to support PanAmSat's extensive services for the Olympics. The satellite is delivering live coverage of the Games for the Organizacion de la Television Iberoamericana, the Latin American broadcast union representing more than 20 countries throughout the region, as well as Spain.

On a full-time basis, PAS-9 now delivers the world's leading international broadcasters and programmers to cable system operators throughout Latin America, including the United Kingdom's BBC; Germany's Deutsche Welle; Japan 's NHK; Venezuela's Cisneros; Portugal's RTP; and the United States' Eternal Word Television Network, ESPN and HBO Ole Partners.

The satellite is also transmitting premium programming direct to consumers' homes for Sky Mexico, part of Sky Latin America's multi-country direct-to-home (DTH) television service.

"With PAS-9's addition to our Atlantic Ocean Region fleet, PanAmSat solidifies its role as the leading provider of video broadcasting services in Latin America, delivering the most recognized names in television and operating platforms for the two premier DTH television services in the region," said R. Douglas Kahn, PanAmSat's president and chief executive officer. "PAS-9 also will be instrumental in delivering key sporting and special events from Latin America to other parts of the world, and vice versa, in conjunction with PanAmSat's global network. At this very moment, PAS-9 is beaming thousands of hours of live Olympic coverage throughout the Americas, and to Europe as well."

PAS-9, an HS 601 HP model spacecraft, is equipped with 24 C- band and 24 Ku-band transponders for the purpose of supporting PanAmSat's video, data and Internet services throughout North and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. The satellite significantly expands PanAmSat's Ku-band inventory, enabling the commencement of PanAmSat's service for Sky Mexico, which is using 12 transponders on PAS-9 to offer a DTH television service throughout Mexico, parts of the Caribbean and northern Central America.

The additional Ku-band capacity also enables the creation of a new multiple-channel-per-carrier platform in London, which will uplink multiple video signals to PAS-9 for distribution throughout the Americas. The service will enable occasional use transmissions between London and Hollywood, employing a 2.4-meter in Los Angeles, Calif.