Hughes Network Systems recently announced that the company is providing USA Today with DirecWay Multicast Services, enabling USA Today to deliver its newspaper with customized regional advertising and updated editorial content to 41 printing presses at 36 print sites across the United States – enabling USA Today to put the newspaper in readers’ hands before 6 a.m. local time.
“Since our launch in 1982 USA Today has used satellites for content delivery. In order to produce more than two million newspapers per day nationwide, we need a reliable and proven system. DirecWay gives us that,” said Ken Kirkhart, vice president of production for USA Today.
DirecWay enables the nation’s largest newspaper to multicast news content and targeted advertising to its regional printing sites quickly throughout the day.
Without the ability to quickly and reliably distribute digital content, getting the newspaper out by 6 a.m. to every region of the country would be virtually impossible.
“We provide to readers the latest final edition newspaper at one of the earliest delivery times,” said Kirkhart.
“The DirecWay system allows us to update the newspaper’s content as late as 3 a.m. eastern time and still make early morning deliveries.”
“When USA Today decided to replace their aging C-band satellite system, HNS was the right company with the right solution.
“With DirecWay, the combination of a competitive price point, easy deployment, and high reliability assured USA Today that their 22 year history of never missing a print deadline would continue,” said Ken Cohen, assistant vice president of marketing at HNS.
“More and more companies are relying on satellite to deliver bandwidth intensive content,” said Cohen.
“There is no other solution that can provide the same reliability and bandwidth capabilities that satellite offers.
“Add that to the inherent multicast capabilities of satellite, and you have a great solution for any organization wishing to distribute large data or video files to multiple locations.
“Twenty-two years of never missing a deadline is an impressive record and we look forward to continuing to deliver that type of service and consistency to USA Today.”
