The Comcast Media Center (CMC) and SES Americom have expanded their relationship with a multi-year, multi-transponder contract.

In the future, the CMC will utilize 29 C-band transponders from SES Americom’s HD-Prime satellite neighborhood to deliver its HITS Quantum platform, as well as additional services, to HITS affiliates.

The move from Ku-band to C-band will enhance service reliability and provide easier access to more programming and advanced service offerings, such as high-definition (HD) and video-on-demand (VOD), the companies said.

SES Americom has inked agreements for all AMC-18 capacity, the newest satellite in the Americom fleet.

The company’s HD-Prime neighborhood is a five-satellite platform for the delivery of HD programming to cable TV headends nationwide.  

“This expansion of the CMC’s relationship with SES Americom allows our HITS affiliates to deploy a highly competitive lineup of advanced video services, while realizing a substantial savings in cost and bandwidth without sacrificing quality,” said Gary Traver, COO of the CMC. “Our new satellite agreement joins several other developments that, all told, represent the largest commitment by the CMC, or its predecessors, to HITS in the service’s entire 15-year history.” 

In January, the CMC announced that it was revamping its HITS platform by signing an agreement with SES Americom (story here).

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