On Wednesday 20 January 2016, Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES and Vivicast Media unveiled UHD-1, a new Ultra HD channel for North American cable operators, telco's and their audiences.
The SES-3 satellite, one of three within the operator's distribution neighbourhood at the centre of the orbital arc over North America, will deliver UHD-1, whilst Vivicast Media will continue to add Ultra HD content and titles such as television series, concerts and documentaries.
UHD-1 represents the fourth Ultra HD channel to join SES's Ultra HD platform, which also features NASA TV UHD, Fashion One 4K and High 4K TV. It is also the eighth unique UHD channel delivered to cable, telco and DTH audiences across SES's global satellite fleet, which includes 2,230 HDTV channels out of a total 7,268 TV channels across the world.
"Vivicast Media has been on the cutting edge of Ultra HD market development for years, preparing for its delivery on a large scale," commented Stuart Smitherman, President of Vivicast Media. "Now that Ultra HD is becoming reality, we've very excited about our collaboration with SES, a true innovator in sokutions that are accelerating the delivery of Ultra HD to the home. We're focused on providing the very best ultra HD programming on UHD-1, and we continue to search for new partnerships we can explore to expand on our Ultra HD portfolio. Our relationship with SES enables us to offer content producers broad access to the North American marketplace, which will be a key driver in the timely delivery of this new frontier in television content."
"UHD-1 is yet another channel in our growing North America Ultra HD line-up that is delivered to virtually every cable TV head end over our unique end-to-end satellite-based Ultra HD platform unveiled last year," added Steve Corda, Vice President North America Business Development at SES. "As consumers continue to add Ultra HD TVs into their homes, a robust channel offering is essential to meet their thirst for compelling high quality Ultra HD programming. Our agreement with Vivicast Media and the launch of UHD-1 brings a fourth Ultra HD channel to our North American platform. SES and its centre of the arc Ultra HD satellite neighbourhood has become the partner of choice and place to be for cable operators and other MVPDs ready to deploy Ultra HD across their networks."
Photo by SES
