Two multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) have launched the first commercial linear Ultra HD services to cable and IPTV subscriber homes in the US. The services were launched using SES’s satellite-delivered, pre-packaged, Ultra HD solution.
The two MVPDs are Marquette-Adams of Oxford, Wisconsin and Highlands Cable Group of Highlands, North Carolina. Both have licensed the SES-provided Ultra HD programming through Vivicast Media and have initiated their Ultra HD offerings following successful trials of the SES platform. Vivicast has played an integral role in the launch of commercial linear Ultra HD in the US, by securing licensing rights for the pay-TV providers offering the SES 4K Ultra HD service.
There are additional cable and IPTV operators close to launching their own Ultra HD services on SES’s platform, which is aimed at accelerating 4K Ultra HD deployments across North America. The SES programming is hosted on a trio of SES satellites at the centre of the orbital arc (SES-1, SES-3, AMC-18), which covers 100% of the cable head-ends and can reach over 100 million TV households.
There are more than twenty MVPDs, with a combined audience of nearly 10 million subscribers, testing SES’s all-in-one Ultra HD solution. The SES Ultra HD service features ten 4K Ultra HD channels, including Fashion One 4K, Travelxp 4K, 4KUniverse, NASA TV UHD, Insight TV, UHD1, C4K360, Funbox 4K, Nature Relaxation 4K as well as SES’s UHD demonstration channel.
One of the SES Available Channels in Ultra HD
