Hurrah For SES AMERICOM, Via WTA

World Teleport Association (WTA) has named SES AMERICOM as the recipient of its first Nova Award for the development and successful market launch of its IP-PRIME satellite-based IPTV service. By bestowing the first annual Nova Award on SES AMERICOM, WTA has saluted daring innovation that significantly expanded the addressable market for satellite service providers. WTA noted that AMERICOM’s entry into the U.S. IPTV market took advantage of the move by telephone carriers to compete for video delivery with cable and DTH. SES AMERICOM saw the potential to serve Tier Two and Three telephone carriers, as well as cable and broadband companies that were unable to compete with the technology investments of Tier One carriers. To develop and deliver IP-PRIME, AMERICOM had to go beyond its core competency as a satellite carrier and tackle issues of broadcast rights, content security, program aggregation and broadband integration. WTA, a non-profit trade association headquartered in New York, added that, despite the challenges, AMERICOM brought IP-PRIME to market in cooperation with the US-based National Rural Telecommunications Council and (US) National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, and has begun to build a customer base—New York, New York