SES WORLD SKIES has announced at the CASBAA Convention in Hong Kong that it has concluded a new multi-year agreement with MediaScape, Inc to provide an additional transponder of capacity on the NSS-11 satellite at the orbital location of 108.2 degrees East.

This will increase MediaScape's transponder utilization on NSS-11 from two to three, and the company will use the additional satellite capacity to distribute high definition television channels to households in the Philippines.

MediaScape's Cignal TV direct-to-home offer was launched on NSS-11 in 2008 and now comprises 8 HD channels and 21 standard definition channels in its programme line-up. Mediascape's Cignal HD bundle consists of top-rating popular channels addressing various interests of the market.

In full HD are HBO HD, Star Sports, National Geographic and History HD. The offer also comprises four channels digitally enhanced to 1080i: ESPN, Star Sports, Playhouse Disney and Sony Entertainment.

States Benjamin Fernandez, Managing Director of MediaScape: "The NSS-11 satellite provides powerful and comprehensive coverage of our target market in the Philippines, allowing for reliable, high quality satellite TV distribution to some 14 million TV households. The addition of eight high definition channels to the line-up of Cignal HD offers viewers in the Philippines a new TV standard that brightens up every television in households across the country. Cignal HD will offer a wide variety of programs to cover sports, lifestyle, kids, history and movies."

Elias Zaccack, Vice President of Sales, Asia-Pacific at SES WORLD SKIES, concurs: "With the addition of HDTV channels, NSS-11 further establishes itself as a leading video neighborhood over one of its key target markets, the Philippines. The NSS-11 satellite also provides optimized access to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea. Currently, the satellite carries over 160 channels in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog and Korean."