The Egyptian satellite company NileSat, plans to expand in Africa and grab the opportunities offered by the digital transition in Africa namely in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, South Africa, Angola and Nigeria. With Terrestrial Digital Television coming online, more channels will be satellite-hosted and NileSat does not intend to miss that train.

The Egyptian operator who currently operates 3 satellites plans to launch two more: one in 2017 and the other in 2019. It also projects to invest up to $50 million in Eastern Africa, website The East African reports.

According to the website, NileSat’s marketing director, Mohamed El-Sawy said: “We plan to exploit the migration of digital broadcasting across Africa… For that reason, we are applying for new licences from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which are necessary to deploy satellites in new markets”.

Currently, NileSat’s main challenge will be to offer affordable rates to Tv channels. “Satellite services still cost too much, they should be reduced to attract more local clients,” said the Managing director of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), Winston Agaba. He said that satellite operators Intelsat and Eurosat for example charge $370,000 a year for their services. UBC’s managing director then added he, personally, was willing to pay up to $200,000 for these services so as to reach a larger audience.