VOOM Expands With SES Americom Agreement

VOOM, Cablevision's 24 hour HDTV satellite service has agreed to lease 16 transponders from SES Americom over the next 10 years, allowing VOOM to expand its HD offerings to subscribers.

According to the agreement, which starts Oct. 1, 2004, VOOM will lease the Ku-band transponders aboard AMC-6 satellite, which is part of SES Americom's AMERICOM2Home service, which is focused on providing technical and bandwidth services to direct-to-home providers.

SES Americom worked with VOOM to develop the capability for a dual feed (Ku FCC and Ku BSS) elliptical dish which delivers VOOM's HD programming from its existing proprietary satellite Rainbow 1 and soon over AMC-6, even though they are more than 10 degrees apart and operate in different bands. VOOM's expanded programming capability will be further enhanced through the planned application of it sMPEG-4 compression technology, which will be phased in over the next two years.

"SES Americom's AMC-6 satellite provides VOOM with additional opportunities to increase its customer program offerings, which already consist of more than 35 HD channels and 80 standard definition channels," said Bryan McGuirk, senior vice president of domestic satellite services for SES Americom.