SES AMERICOM is the premier distributor of cable programming in North America. In fact, our support of cable television dates back to HBO's first-ever special event broadcast of the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" heavyweight bout. The event marked both an HBO first and the birth of cable television as we know it today.

SES AMERICOM helped make history by delivering the fight live to an audience of millions and today spans America with quality, digital programming. SES AMERICOM satellites provide access to every cable system in the U.S, with three C-band cable satellites, three hybrids, C- and Ku band occasional and backhaul services, and uplinking from the East and West Coasts. Unparalleled service continuity is achieved by our cable fleet's industry-leading availability rates.

The Sky's Premier Cable Neighborhoods

We established the first cable neighborhood more than 20 years ago. Today, every U.S. cable household receives some of its programming via SES AMERICOM satellites.

HD-PRIME, America's Cable Neighborhood

Our primary cable neighborhood resides aboard Satcom C3 and Satcom C4, a pair of C-band satellites to be succeeded by AMC-10 and AMC-11 in 2004. These new state-of-the-art A2100 spacecraft will all cable households with increased power and feature extended coverage areas. The results are clear as digital cable. SES AMERICOM leads the industry in signal availability and customer satisfaction.

AMC-10 and AMC-11 are the natural evolution of reliable spacecraft trusted by leading cable programmers for decades. The combination of signal strength, geographic coverage, signal availability and built-in reliability make this satellite neighborhood the top choice to reach cable headends and more than 80 million American television households.

Cable 2^®

Based on the C-band payloads of AMC-1 and AMC-4, the Cable2^® neighborhood now reaches more than 61 million cable households with two-dozen national and regional programming services. Its impressive penetration is largely the result of an ambitious program to distribute antennas to cable headends. Cable2^® is capable of reaching practically every cable subscriber in the U.S. With the close proximity of the two satellites, AMC-1 at 103° West and AMC-4 at 101° West, the antenna program permits dual reception of both spacecraft by a single C-band antenna.

Digital C ^® - Designed for Programmers...Valued by MSOs

With a focus on enabling cable television programmers to affordably migrate from analog to digital, SES AMERICOM developed DigitalC^® -- an end-to-end video MCPC solution that offers programmers a choice of popular digital platforms, as well as customized bandwidth in a multiple-channel-per-carrier format (MCPC).

DigitalC^® is designed to facilitate the economic distribution of compressed, digital cable programming services. The technical hub for the service is SES AMERICOM?s Digital Media Center in Woodbine, Maryland. The facility is capable of accepting video content in any format or media, including videotape, analog, digital terrestrial or satellite delivery. The DigitalC^® solution includes digital encoding and compression, local transport, uplinking and protected space segment in the Cable2^® neighborhood.

DigitalC^® is an end-to-end video MCPC solution providing programmers with access to more than 61 million households through thousands of cable headends reached via satellite.

Cable programmers choose from standard and optional features, each with the quality and reliability offered only by SES Americom:

- MCPC on AMC-1 at 103° West
- Full restoration protection on AMC-4 at 101° West
- Fully redundant encoding and uplink services
- Local loop, backhaul or satellite turnaround options
- Conditional access option available

To ensure the highest quality of programming possible, SES AMERICOM uses advanced digital technology:

- Scientific-Atlanta PowerVu^® Plus compression platform
- Dedicated bandwidth or stat mux groups
- Flexible data rates
- HDTV compatible
- High-speed/low-speed data channels
- Supports both Dolby^® AC3 and MUSICAM


DigitalC^® ADVANTAGES

- Intra- and inter-satellite restoration protection
- Widely-used PowerVu^® Plus compression platform
- Cable2^® neighborhood?s prime location in the center of the North American orbital arc
- High-performance, 50-state coverage


For more information, please call 800-273-0329 (U.S.) or +1-609-987-4200. Or send us an e-mail at

Radio Networks

More than 6,000 radio affiliates across the U.S. depend on the SES AMERICOM fleet for critical programming feeds and uplink/downlink services. Analog and digital services for both C-band and Ku-band applications are provided to an impressive roster of radio programmers. National, regional and specialized networks also benefit from our SCPC services.

Our AMC-8 satellite, which replaced Satcom C-5 in March 2001, serves as the premier address for radio services. The next-generation spacecraft offers improved performance, protection, flexibility and redundancy.

We continue to achieve higher standards of commercial radio services by pioneering innovations that meet our customers’ needs. SES AMERICOM leads the industry in developing and delivering Digital Audio Transmission Service (DATS) to radio station affiliates and we continue to pioneer standards for high-quality audio transmission.

For more information, send us an e-mail at

Occasional Use

SES AMERICOM has an international team dedicated to serving the occasional satellite contribution and distribution needs of broadcasters, news agencies, networks, corporations and ISPs around the world.

The SES AMERICOM team provides a one-stop-shop and end-to-end management of special events such as world summits or major sporting events. Our services include: encryption, traffic/transmission path monitoring and onsite management. SES AMERICOM's capabilities and resources were aptly demonstrated and tested when providing European TV coverage of the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympic Games and during ESPN's coverage of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea.

Companies outside the broadcasting industry benefit from SES Americom's global connections. Private companies utilize occasional services for a number of applications: company announcements, new product introductions, distance learning and uniting co-workers in different time zones and geographic areas.

Occasional services can be booked as full or partial transponder services for either national, regional or international coverage.

Satellite News Gathering(SNG)

In addition to coordinated events, SES AMERICOM also provides contribution services for urgent, news-breaking stories in any region of the world. These unforeseen events require instant availability of capacity and connection to numerous points around the world at a moment's notice.

To meet these urgent demands, SES AMERICOM provides a Satellite News Gathering (SNG) service, which features online access to bandwidth and inventory in every region of the world. Current users of this service include broadcast customers such as ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC.

In North America, the SNG service provides a bi-directional transmission path. The first path provides a video contribution channel from the SNG antenna back to the affiliate TV station or network center, and the other (return) path, provides bandwidth to facilitate voice communication with the remote vehicle. It can be connected directly in the public telephone network, providing a dial-up connection to/from the SNG vehicle.

Television

A Broadcast Network's Best Friend

Some of the planet’s most innovative broadcast networks, including NBC and PBS, rely on SES AMERICOM for the reliable satellite-based distribution of the programming their viewing audiences tune in to watch every day.

PBS and SES AMERICOM are constantly working together on breakthrough satellite-delivered programming solutions, always exploring ways to help the broadcasting pioneer and its member stations improve operations cost-effectively.

Whether it’s enabling affiliates to share locally produced content more efficiently or it’s providing the quality bandwidth behind the scenes that makes broadcasting tick, SES AMERICOM has been a trusted partner with NBC for decades.

NBC depends on the flexibility and know-how that comes with 30 years of industry experience at SES AMERICOM. It’s become a powerful relationship, one in which SES AMERICOM knows and provides what the cutting-edge network needs to deliver its news and entertainment to TV screens throughout the U.S. and the world around the clock.

Citizens around the globe depend on the breaking news that informs us, the sitcoms that make us laugh, and the informational programs that educate us. Since the formative years of television, viewers of leading broadcast networks have been watching primetime and anytime programming delivered by the exceptional satellite fleet owned and operated by SES AMERICOM.

It’s not just the big broadcast networks. Broadcast networks of all sizes are delivering their programming with SES AMERICOM’s customized satellite services backed by world class support.

Station Groups Leveraging Satellite Leadership

Broadcast station groups and hybrids that operate broadcast stations and cable systems are putting the power of SES AMERICOM satellites to work to share programming and to optimize their reach within DMAs.

PAX-TV has 66 owned and operated stations and a cable channel, which depend on full-time and occasional satellite capacity from SES AMERICOM to deliver content to and from affiliates across the country.

Telemundo, another major broadcast/cable hybrid, is also linking its entire network of stations and cable facilities aboard the SES AMERICOM satellite-based distribution platform, which is monitored 24/7 from state-of-the-art ground stations on the west and east coasts.

Small and medium-sized station groups like Ramar Communications of Dallas, Texas, and Bluebonnet Communications in Louisiana are tapping a new SES AMERICOM offering called SignalSATTM. SignalSAT enables broadcasters that use microwave transmissions and fiber networks to send their signals to off-air repeaters, cable headends, and DBS uplink sites, to instead use affordable point to multipoint C-band or Ku-band satellite delivery to better realize their market share potential and reach more households.

SES AMERICOM’s SignalSAT service offers a 3 MHz digital signal for as low as $6,000 per month. Advancements in digital compression technologies have made it far more affordable for broadcast stations to use satellite solutions, which in many cases are more effective and reliable than microwave and terrestrial services.

For more information, send us an e-mail at