SES World Skies picks up 8 HD ch’s
Chris Forrester
03-11-2009

SES World Skies (the new name for the combined New Skies and Americom division of satellite operator SES) has added 8 new high-def channels for the Philippines.

SES World Skies used the CASBAA media convention in Hong Kong to make the announcement. The company has concluded a new multi-year agreement with MediaScape, Inc to provide an additional transponder of capacity on the NSS-11 satellite at the orbital location of 108.2 degrees East. This will increase MediaScape’s transponder utilization on NSS-11 from two to three, and the company will use the additional satellite capacity to distribute high-definition television channels to households in the Philippines.

MediaScape’s Cignal TV direct-to-home offer was launched on NSS-11 in 2008 and now comprises 8 HD channels and 21 standard definition channels in its programme line-up. Mediascape’s Cignal HD bundle consists of top-rating popular channels addressing various interests of the market. In full HD are HBO HD, Star Sports, National Geographic and History HD. The offer also comprises four channels digitally enhanced to 1080i: ESPN, Star Sports, Playhouse Disney and Sony Entertainment.

States Benjamin Fernandez, MD of MediaScape: “The NSS-11 satellite provides powerful and comprehensive coverage of our target market in the Philippines, allowing for reliable, high quality satellite TV distribution to some 14 million TV households. The addition of eight high definition channels to the line-up of Cignal HD offers viewers in the Philippines a new TV standard that brightens up every television in households across the country. Cignal HD will offer a wide variety of programs to cover sports, lifestyle, kids, history and movies.