Saudi Arabia-based satellite operator Arabsat has signed a contract with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) to manufacture ARABSAT-50, a high-power Ku-band spacecraft intended to secure direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasting across the Middle East at the 26° East orbital position.

Arabsat announced the agreement on Thursday. The company did not disclose the contract value or a launch date.

The satellite will be built on CGWIC's DFH-3E platform, a bus design the Chinese manufacturer has positioned for medium-capacity missions. Arabsat's stated requirements are specific: continuity of DTH television services at 26° East, one of the operator's core orbital slots, and a flexible backup asset that can support disaster recovery and fleet-wide operations if a spacecraft at another position fails.

That backup role matters operationally. Arabsat said ARABSAT-50 is designed to reinforce continuity and disaster recovery plans across its fleet of orbital positions, with 26° East as the priority, and to address the operator's future Ku-band capacity requirements. In-orbit spares that can be repositioned between slots are a standard hedge for operators whose DTH customers — broadcasters with millions of receiving dishes pointed at a fixed slot — cannot tolerate extended outages.

Arabsat also highlighted design flexibility in the new spacecraft. The satellite's architecture allows redistribution or modification of beam and channel frequencies according to operational requirements, which the operator said will improve capacity management efficiency and support service continuity. In practice, that means Arabsat can reallocate transponders between coverage zones as demand shifts, rather than committing capacity at the design stage and living with it for the satellite's 15-year service life.

The name marks a milestone. Arabsat chose "ARABSAT-50" to commemorate its 50th anniversary. The company, wholly owned by the Arab League, was founded by 21 Arab countries in 1976, making it the first satellite services provider in the Arab world. The organization has since built a multi-slot fleet serving broadcast and telecommunications customers across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The contract deepens Arabsat's relationship with Chinese industry. CGWIC, the commercial arm of China's state-backed space sector, has exported satellites to operators across Asia, Africa and the Middle East for more than two decades and has competed increasingly on price and delivery terms against European and US manufacturers such as Airbus Defence and Space, Thales Alenia Space and Boeing. Arabsat has previously ordered spacecraft from Western and Chinese suppliers alike; ARABSAT-50 extends that diversified procurement approach at a time when Ku-band broadcast capacity over the Middle East faces renewal across several operators' fleets.

For CGWIC, the deal adds another Middle East anchor customer at a moment when Chinese satellite exports are expanding into markets once dominated by Franco-American primes. For Arabsat, the spacecraft answers two needs with one asset: replacement capacity at 26° East and a fleet-wide insurance policy in Ku-band.

No launch vehicle, orbital slot for storage ahead of service entry, or in-service date has been announced. Deployment timelines will firm up as manufacturing progresses under the CGWIC contract.