France 24 has renewed a multi-year service agreement with Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) to continue distribution of France 24’s HD and SD television services in the Asia-Pacific on AsiaSat 5.

This extended agreement reaffirms their continued commitment to bringing top-quality international news programmes from France to Asian audiences, a statement from AsiaSat said Tuesday.

The news services, transmitting in free-to-air mode, include France 24’s English HD TV channel, English SD and French SD TV channels. The channels address both French and English speaking viewers across the region.

The partnership of France24 and AsiaSat began with the successful launch of France24’s English-language news channel on AsiaSat 5 in 2009, and subsequently extended to the distribution of a French channel in 2010 and English HD service in 2016.

Benefitting from AsiaSat 5’s exceptional audience penetration, France 24 has built a strong presence in Asia with a massive access to more than 88 million TV households via free-to-air TV networks and pay TV platforms, and over 675,000 hotel rooms in 27 Asia-Pacific countries.

France24 offers Asian viewers round-the-clock news and analysis from a French perspective, featuring award-winning special reports and magazines, as well as promoting the French vision with high quality content covering the French “art de vivre”, news of business updates, trends and technology, and sports in different continents.

“We’re delighted to renew our collaboration with AsiaSat who has accompanied our growth in the region since the beginning. Thanks to this agreement, France 24 will continue to benefit from AsiaSat’s excellent coverage, allowing the channel to attain record distribution,” said Serge Schick, Director of International

Development and Commercial Resources at France Médias Monde.

“France 24 has been a long standing customer, and we appreciate their trust in our service and continued recognition of AsiaSat 5’s value in nurturing their audience growth in Asia,” said Ina Lui, Senior Vice President, Commercial, Business Development & Strategy of AsiaSat.