Hot Bird (also styled Hotbird[1]) is a group of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13°E over the equator (orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Asia, Europe, North Africa, Americas and the Middle East.

Only digital radio and television channels are transmitted by the Hot Bird constellation, both free-to-air and encrypted.

Hot Bird 3 was launched by Ariane 44LP on 2 September 1997 and intended to be moved to 10°E to become Eurobird 10.

Starting on 12 June 2009, the day of Iranian elections, deliberate interference affecting this satellite was traced to Iran.

In December 2011 Eutelsat announced, that their satellite assets will be renamed under a unified brand name effective from March 2012.

With a launch mass of 4.9 tonnes, Hot Bird 8 is the largest and the most powerful broadcast satellite serving Europe.

Its entry into service enabled the Hot Bird 7A satellite to be redeployed to 9° East and rebranded Eurobird 9A, increasing capacity to 38 Ku band transponders at this orbital position.

The satellite has been produced by Airbus Defence and Space and it's based on Eurostar Neo bus.

The satellite is designed to use PPS5000 plasma propulsion engine (developed by Safran and using xenon) to get to geostationary orbit.