AMC 18 C-band footprint. Photo: SES

[Via Satellite 11-13-13] Comcast Wholesale has renewed and expanded key agreements with SES for nearly 650 MHz of C-band capacity to deliver content management and delivery solutions to media companies across North America. As part of the multi-year deal, Comcast Wholesale continues to use 16 transponders aboard the AMC 18 satellite and one transponder on the AMC 1, and has contracted one additional transponder on this spacecraft.

The capacity enables Comcast to provide cable programmers, multiple system operators and independent cable operators access to linear and on-demand content distribution solutions, including Comcast’s HITS (Headend in the Sky) platform. The Comcast Media Center on-demand programming distribution will be transitioned from AMC 1 to the new SES 3 satellite in 2014.

SES 1 is located at 101 degrees west, AMC 1 at 103 degrees west, and AMC 18 at 105 degrees west. These three satellites make up SES’s expanding cable video distribution neighborhood at their locations in the center of the arc over North America.