His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Saudi Space Commission, valued the role played by the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat), specializes in operating satellites in the Arab world, and whose services are provided through more than 500 TV channels and 200 radio stations and paid TV networks and wide range of HD channels.
This came during his visit to the company headquarter in Riyadh yesterday, where he met the CEO of Arabsat, Khalid Balkheyour, and his team work who gave a presentation to His Highness on the goals of the organization that was founded in 1976 by the 21 member states of the Arab League, meeting the needs of the Arab world for more than 40 years since then from its headquarter in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
His Highness witnessed a presentation on the organization goals, future vision, and the satellites that were launched to serve the Arab region, broadcasting to tens of millions of homes in more than 100 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Central Asia, watched by more than 170 million viewers in 21 Arab countries, broadcasting from two ground stations to control satellites in Riyadh and Tunisia.
Balkheyour praised the great support provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the organization, as the Kingdom is one of the largest countries contributing to Arabsat, valuing the great role of His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Arab Muslim astronaut, who participated in the mission of launching the first satellite of Arabsat In 1985, which was an inspiration to the whole region to discover space, for the benefit of the region and humanity. He also indicated that the organization today has more than 15 satellites in the orbit and is considered the 6th largest satellite operator in the world.