Intelsat Offers IPTV Delivery Scheme

Intelsat Ltd. is now marketing “Ampiage,” a satellite-based “superheadend” that will facilitate what amounts to a quick upgrade to MPEG-4 (Moving Picture Expert Group) for both telcos and cable operators.

The content-delivery and management service aims to help service providers to cost-effectively move to MPEG-4 from MPEG-2 without making a big capital investment, according to Intelsat.

“This is a game-starter for phone companies looking to launch IPTV services for their subscribers and make a video play,” Intelsat CEO David McGlade said.

Intelsat claimed that telcos can enjoy cost savings by using the Ampiage offering since if its various combined elements were secured separately, they might cost millions of dollars. The company added that telcos will benefit from its volume relationships with content providers worldwide.

Ampiage packages the acquisition, aggregation, encoding, encapsulation and encryption of licensed TV programming from content providers and has the ability to redistribute it in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format.