It’s obviously been a busy couple of weeks at Sky News, as the company has also signed a five year satellite services contract with SISLink. The deal will see SISLink delivering Sky News a fleet of highly-specified uplink vehicles and providing satellite services until 2012.
Included in this significant deal are 17 individually built trucks, ranging from uPod Shoot Edits to a Drive Fly, standard uplinks, flyaways and a production truck. The majority of the vehicles will be used across the UK and Europe, fully supported by SISLink’s dedicated team of engineers. SISLink’s comprehensive service under the deal will also see the major satellite broadcast company upgrading the Sky News teleport facilities and providing them with full-time leased satellite capacity. Personnel also form part of the contract, and SISLink will be assigning highly-trained dedicated engineers and camera operators alongside some of the vehicles, providing full operation and camera services where required.
David Meynell, MD, SISLink, explained: “We are delighted to have won this major contract with Sky News and look forward to continuing and further developing our long standing relationship with Sky. This contract consolidates SISLink’s position as the premier satellite service provider in Europe and shows how our investment in new technologies and enhanced services meets the increasing requirements of our clients.”
Jackie Faulkner, Head of Operations, Sky News, said: “It’s an exciting time as we are looking at new forms of delivery and changing some of the fleet to uPods. The uPods are working successfully already in our Norwich and Bristol bureaus and we will be enhancing our Brussels, Birmingham and Manchester areas with them. The contract gives us scope to look at new technology which is changing dramatically and we will work closely with SISLink over the next five years to make sure we are ahead of the game. This contract also incorporates services to Five News.”
As the supplier of choice to most of the UK’s leading broadcast companies, SISLink also has ongoing contracts with ITV, ITN and the BBC.
