Riding on its Ultra HD success in North America, SES is ushering in a new era of television across Latin America with an all-in-one package of 4K content, satellite distribution and reception gear. Steve Corda, Vice President of Media Platforms for SES in North America, is excited to see the SES Ultra HD platform expand to Latin America and also continue the tremendous momentum SES has built on the 4K solution he was so instrumental in launching three years ago.
Q: What is the very latest update regarding the SES Ultra HD platform?
Corda: We continue to add new, compelling content to the SES Ultra HD platform. Stay tuned. Building on the momentum of our Ultra HD solution in North America – with 40+ cable and IPTV operators testing and launching 4K services and a dozen channels, SES just announced the expansion of our Ultra HD platform into Latin America. The move will help to accelerate 4K rollouts among the region’s leading Pay TV providers, leading to their commercial launch of Ultra HD subscriber services in conjunction with the 2018 World Cup in June. SES continues to introduce advanced television services in new regions, with this latest move opening up a whole new world of 4K content across Latin America by providing an accelerated path to Ultra HD just as we did in North America.
Q: What Latin American Pay TV operators have signed on or are considering signing on with the SES Ultra HD platform?
Corda: Thanks to the reach of our SES-1 and NSS-806 satellites, leading Latin American Pay TV operators are currently testing or offering 4K services via the SES Ultra HD platform throughout Latin America. While 4K UHD is relatively new in Latin America, we expect to see accelerated rollouts in the coming months and year perhaps even quicker than that in North America.
Q: What Ultra HD channels will be offered on the Latin America platform?
Corda: While we offer about a dozen Ultra HD channels in North America, SES’s Latin America Ultra HD platform initially features a few great Ultra HD channels – including Fashion One 4K, NASA TV UHD, and our SES Ultra HD promo channel, which serves as an incubator channel for emerging 4K content producers. We are now testing with and plan to announce two more channels very soon and also expect to add even more channels to the SES Latin America Ultra HD platform when our SES-14 satellite initiates service in the September timeframe.
Q: Beyond Latin America, where else does SES plan to take its Ultra HD platform?
Corda: The SES Ultra HD platform is a solution that can go virtually anywhere there is a demand for 4K services. We’ve already seen two channels that made their Ultra HD debuts on the SES North America Ultra HD platform go international. Travelxp 4K, a popular 4K travel channel, is now being delivered to subscriber homes on SES’s HD platform HD+ in Germany. General entertainment channel 4KUNIVERSE is offered in Sweden. Both are great examples of how the SES Ultra HD platform is serving as a springboard for global Ultra HD expansion – in addition to the Latin American launch.
Come find us at The Pay TV Show to learn more about how SES and our 4K UHD platform can help you accelerate your 4K UHD rollouts.
Corda and his Media Platforms team are constantly meeting and collaborating with Pay TV providers, content producers and programmers across the Americas region and beyond. He’s heading to The Pay TV Show in Denver 14-16 May, to speak in a featured panel discussion at The Pay TV Show titled, “4K UHD/HDR: Tackling the Technology Conundrum.”
