SES Americom to Launch VOD Service for IPTV

Satellite distributor SES Americom is developing a video-on-demand solution as part of its IP-Prime service for telephone companies and broadband service providers, scheduled to launch in the first half of 2008.

SES Americom did not specify what content will be available through the service except that it will include “local and national content.” Company spokesman John Giddings said discussions with programmers and other VOD content providers are currently in the works.

The VOD service will use Harmonic’s StreamLiner 2000 video servers, storage encoding solution and ingest-gateway workflow software.

“We are committed to continually adding new capabilities to IP-PRIME so that our telco customers can offer their subscribers the widest range of video services,” SES Americom senior vice president of product development Robert Phelan said, in a prepared statement. “In developing our VOD solution, we chose to partner with Harmonic based on their outstanding technical capabilities, flexible product architecture and leadership in VOD.”

Harmonic’s StreamLiner servers, based on off-the-shelf hardware from IBM and Hewlett-Packard, ingest content and then stream programs to viewers.