Satellite Services

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), Office of Contracts (CON) located in Washington, DC intends to negotiate a firm fixed price (FFP) award term seven (7) year non-competitive commercial item contract for satellite services in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) 57 Degree East Satellite and the Americas 319.5 Degree East Satellite with NewSkies Satellites, B.V. located at RooseveltPlantsoen 4, 2517 KR, The Hague, The Netherlands, P.O. Box 82197, 2508 The Hague, The Netherlands. This commercial item contract will be awarded with a performance date of January 1, 2009, to avoid any beak in services, in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), Subpart 6.302-1(a)(1) under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), other than full and open competition, only one (1) responsible source and no other sources or services will satisfy Agency requirements. The Agency has a satellite distribution infrastructure that has utilized the above satellites from their transition from Intelsat to NewSkies. This infrastructure with NewSkies satellites is critical to the Agency being able to meet its broadcasting mission. The Agency uses approximately 2.5 Global Beam 36 MHz transponders on the NewSkies IOR satellite, and has over 100 stations that are operational with various Agency services that are available to retransmission facilities that are located in multiple countries to other Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellites in the region to specific target audiences. The Agency's IOR services are available on various IOR transponders that are transmitted and received by the same major satellite gateway distribution antennas, and must be maintained on the same satellite. The IOR Global Beams must cover Germany through the Philippines (and in-between) to the Indian Ocean Region water, limiting potential orbital locations from 50 to 75 Degrees East, must be C-Band and Circular Polarization. In addition, the Agency has its Latin American service on the 319.5 Degree satellite. The Agency has also established an affiliate market with approximately 200 stations on the NewSkies satellite throughout Central and South America and an additional Direct-To-Home (DTH) audience base on this satellite. In addition, the transponders in use on this NewSkies satellite offers a European Spot Beam to send video programming to a retransmission gateway facility in Spain for uplinking to a satellite. This European spot beam is required for backup capability to the Agency's primary Transatlantic Intelsat satellite. A move or transfer of all or part of the NewSkies services to another satellite in either region will result in the loss of audience, which can not be tolerated, as well as distribution systems that are technically deficient. Presently, NewSkies is the only known firm able to satisfy Agency's requirement for satellite services in the IOR and the Americas. Those firms who are interested in the above must submit adequate detailed documentation on their capability to respond to this requirement in writing within fifteen (15) calendar days after the posting date of this notice. All documentation submitted shall be sufficient in depth and detail to allow for an evaluation without the need for added information. The Government will not accept oral or incomplete submissions. A final determination by the Government not to compete this proposed procurement will be based upon the response to this Public Notice, and is solely within the discretion of the Government. All inquiries concerning this matter shall be submitted in writing to the point of contact, Myria E. Carpenter, who can be reached via E-mail at mecarpen@bbg.gov. This public notice is not an RFP, RFQ or IFB.