Ahlulbayt Television Network is the first and on exclusively English-language Shia Islamic television channel. The channel was launched with much fanfare on Sky in the UK on 17th August 2009 and two months later on the Galaxy 19 platform covering North America from its London headquarters. A few months into its operations it also expanded to Atlantic Bird 4A (Nilesat) which covers the Middle East and North Africa. Australian broadcaster IMTV signed an exclusive distribution contract in June 2010, and broadcasting of the channel commenced on the 10 July 2010 on Intelsat 8 12575 MHZ in MPEG2 and FTA covering the ANZ region. However IMTV announced their plans to encrypt the channel and upgrade to H.264 broadcasting mid August. The channel will be included in a package to be announced at a lat