BT and Telstra Broadcast Services team to enhance global network connectivity

Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS) has entered into an initial five-year strategic alliance with BT to bring together each company’s global media network teams, pooling their network infrastructure and localised expertise. 

A key division of Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology company, Telstra Broadcast Services (TBS) has the mission of helping broadcasters, media and entertainment companies around the world via its high-capacity global media networks and suite of managed services.

Through international field services and special events teams, and its worldwide broadcast operations centres, TBS has a dedicated team of media industry professionals, media networks, online video and cloud platforms, satellite services, and 24/7 bookings, operations and engineering support.  

Over the past two years or so, TBS has been beefing up its global broadcast and operations network capabilities as it broadcasts events to more parts of the globe and delivers 24/7 programming, including the opening of a UK-based broadcast operations centre (pictured above), situated in London’s Docklands.

The deal will increase TBS’s global footprint by 50% and expand its customer base to more than 170 broadcast and media organisations worldwide. As part of the deal, customers of both TBS and BT will have access to the unified operations of the two global media networks via a product offering headed up by Telstra, including key Asia-Pacific regions, with India, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other countries. 

Customers will also be able to connect to Telstra’s high-capacity media networks, generating expanded reach and distribution of their content. This will be supported by an increased local team in Asia-Pacific and access to the broader suite of TBS products and services, including field services, special events teams, and broadcast operations centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and Pittsburgh. 

Telstra and BT assured that their customers would continue to access the same high-quality media delivery service, with the additional opportunity to drive greater global reach and visibility of their content.

Remarking on the new deal, TBS said it was continuing to build a strong team of media and broadcast specialists in the Asia-Pacific region to provide customers with localised knowledge and support. It added that the collaboration supports its ambition to grow its team, reach, and investments in technology and innovation across APAC, the UK and other regions globally, a key tenet of its T25 strategy for growth. 

“Our priority at TBS is to offer a world-class global content delivery service for our customers, including the largest distribution network with the most flexibility and options for organisations to connect to the world,” said Karen Clark, head of APAC at Telstra Broadcast Services. “We’re continuing to see rapid growth in content demand and ongoing evolution in technology and distribution channels in response to changing consumer behaviour.

“The focus of TBS and BT’s teams and operations on the right customer outcome will ensure our customers have the very best partner to respond to the fast-changing broadcast environment and help them optimise their operations and reach global audiences. This significant opportunity means we can continue to not only meet the needs of our customers today, but well into the future.”

Faisal Mahomed, director of media and broadcast and UK portfolio businesses at BT, said it was excited about the collaboration and the opportunity to bring its customers greater content, reach and visibility by utilising the strength of BT Media and Broadcast and Telstra Broadcast Services’ “world-class content delivery networks”.

“This approach builds on the reach of our intelligent media platform, Vena, which continues to add wider networks, in addition to cloud integrations, virtualised services such as baseband encoding, and the recent 5G and LEO developments, into our portfolio,” he said.