U.K. cabler Telewest will use Harmonic Inc.'s Narrowcast Services Gateway (NSG) to pipe on-demand content for its new Teleport service.

Deployed in headend and hub sites on the network, the NSG transports on-demand streams across the IP backbone network. At the edge, the gear extracts and reconstitutes the MPEG stream for delivery on the existing hybrid fiber/coax network.

Telewest has already announced VOD server and system partnerships with SeaChange International and Entone Technologies.

Telewest has about 1.8 million subscribers and passes 4.7 million homes, and the company expects to provide digital services across the board by the end of 2006.