MUMBAI: Satellite operator Panamsat has launched Vis-a-TV in the US. This service provides an offering of international channels for US cable, DTH, IPTV and broadband platforms seeking to better serve niche audiences.

Vis-a-TV will acquire the rights to content and distribute it to MSOs, IPTV platforms and broadband Internet service providers either for linear subscription or video on demand.

Panamsat CEO Joe Wright says, "Panamsat is leveraging its relationships with its international programming customers to bring the best of the more than 400 channels currently on our satellite fleet to the US market for distribution. We will use our satellite capacity to bring our channels to the US and to deliver the content to the last-mile operators who sign with us. We will deliver the US market to our content providers for a share of the subscription revenues."

" We have already landed a significant number of channels and are rolling out our service for subscribers first to the Internet to be followed by cable TV and IPTV platforms in the near future. We believe that the richly multicultural US market has a strong appetite for this video content. This move is consistent with Panamsat's view of how FSS providers must evolve from bandwidth-only providers into more fully integrated service providers that are more closely tied to content and the terrestrial networks that they serve," adds Wright.