Comcast Media Center Tops 200 Channels

Comcast Media Center (CMC), the cable giant's turnkey digital transmission facility in Denver, Colo., says it is now supporting over 200 programming channels with new transport agreements for twenty-three additional channels.

New additions to CMC's transmission service, aimed at helping cable operators shift to all-digital operation, include ten channel feeds from NBC Universal (Bravo East & West, CNBC, MSNBC, SCI FI Channel East & West, Shop NBC, USA Network East & West and Universal HD); eight channel feeds for Viacom-owned networks (MTV Networks’ CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike TV and VH1, and BET Networks’ East & West Coast feeds for BET); two Disney-ABC Television Group channel feeds (Disney Channel and ABC Family); GSN: The Network for Games; Scripps Networks’ DIY Network, and Hallmark Movie Channel.

The new channels will be transmitted by SES Americom’s AMC-4 satellite, which offers full coverage of the continental U.S. CMC now transmits a total of 54 east and west coast feeds for popular cable TV networks in addition to its pre-existing HITS (Headend in the Sky) platform of over 150 digital video and audio services.  Cable programmers that already have transport agreements with CMC include Comcast Networks (AZN Television, E! Entertainment Television, G4, The Golf Channel, PBS KIDS Sprout, The Style Network and TV One), A&E Television Networks (A&E Network East & West, The History Channel East & West), C-SPAN (C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2), EWTN Global Catholic Network, Crown Media Holdings, Inc. (Hallmark Channel), The Inspiration Network, ION Media Networks,Jewelry Television, Lifetime Networks (Lifetime Television East & West, LMN), Oxygen Media (Oxygen East & West), Scripps Networks (HGTV East & West, Food Network East & West), Great American Country, Starz Entertainment Group (Starz HD), TBN- Trinity Broadcasting Network and WGN (Superstation WGN).  Recent additions to the HITS’ lineup also include Scripps’ Fine Living TV Network.   

“As the addition of these widely carried basic and expanded basic channels illustrates, HITS has made a quantum leap from its launch twelve years ago with respect to programming as well as in our technology upgrades,” said Gary Traver, COO of Comcast Media Center, in a statement.