In late 1993 EUTELSAT sought bids for a more capable spacecraft dubbed Hotbird Plus.
In early 1994, Matra Marconi was awarded the contract for a single spacecraft, Hotbird 2,
with options for up to three more. By the end of 1994 the first option had been exercised
for Hotbird 3. The new spacecraft were launched in 1996 and 1997 and were based on
the Eurostar-2000+ design developed jointly
by British Aerospace and Matra Marconi. The nearly 3-metric-ton Hotbird Plus carries 20
high power (110 W) Ku-band transponders to permit direct-to-home television broadcast
service to Europe via a Superbeam antenna and broader coverage with a Widebeam antenna. An
enlarged solar array will generate the 5.5 kW required by the spacecraft and its
power-hungry payload. The new Hotbird Plus spacecraft were co-located with Hot Bird 1 at 13 degrees E. Two more spacecraft called Hot Bird 4 and Hot Bird 5 were also contracted with British Aerospace and Matra Marconi.
The solar arrays of Hot Bird 5 are suffering from abnormal degradation which is believed to have caused a loss in output power of more than 10 percent.
Hot Bird 5 was renamed as Eurobird 2 and finally Arabsat 2D.
Hot Bird 4 was renamed Nilesat 103, when it was leased to Nilesat in September 2005. In June 2006 it returned to use by Eutelsat as Atlantic Bird 4.
Hot Bird 3 was renamed Eurobird 10 in October 2006, Eurobird 4 in February 2009 and Eutelsat W75 in late 2009.
Hot Bird 2 was renamed Eurobird 9 in May 2007 and Eutelsat W48 in late 2009.
In December 2011 Eutelsat announced, that their satellite assets were renamed under a unified brand name effective from March 2012. W48 became Eutelsat 48A, Eurobird 2 became Eutelsat 25A and Eurobird 16 became Eutelsat 16B.
Eutelsat 16B (Hotbird 4) was retired in 2015 and was moved into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary belt.
Eutelsat 48A (Hotbird 2) was retired in May 2017 after more than 20 years of service and was moved into a graveyard orbit above the geostationary belt.
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