PanAmSat [SPOT] has introduced a new hybrid, global broadcasting service for the transmission of breaking news and live events around the world.

The new service, called PASport, is intended to connect more than 500 broadcasters and video content producers in the United States, Europe and Asia to PanAmSat’s global hybrid network. PanAmSat customers would receive both the company’s newly expanded fiber capabilities and its traditional satellite network services that combine to provide seamless global transmission, said Mike Antonovich, PanAmSat’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

“We have taken our global satellite capability and tethered it to our 22,000-mile transoceanic fiber network,” Antonovich said during an interview with Satellite News. “The rationale for all of this is that we are effectively moving from being a one-dimensional satellite-based services provider to fully offering our customers a ‘best-way’ offering. Whatever is the most effective, practical way to deliver customer signals is what we will employ.”

The new service combines an inventory of more than 300 satellite paths on PanAmSat’s in-orbit satellites, with a fiber network in Europe, transatlantic fiber capacity, 15 points of presence (POP) in the United States and long-haul fiber connectivity to Singapore and Hong Kong. The goal is to create the world’s largest and most extensive broadcast collection and back-haul services network, Antonovich said.

Users of PASport would access the fiber network through public video switching facilities in major cities, direct local access or virtual hubs. “PanAmSat’s global scheduling center and worldwide ground and space assets now are completely integrated into a one-stop shop that delivers door-to-door, anywhere-to-anywhere transmission services to our customers,” Antonovich said.

The fiber network complements and strengthens PanAmSat’s satellite services by using both satellite and terrestrial networks to improve the “reach, ubiquity and convenience” of video transmission around the world, Antonovich said. The use of fiber allows PanAmSat to create a series of centralized hubs throughout the world to broaden the range of existing satellite facilities to areas that normally could not access a satellite directly, he added.

In addition to improving network access in such media-intensive markets as London, Paris and Amsterdam, PanAmSat wholly owns technical and network facilities in Europe, Antonovich said.

–Paul Dykewicz

(Kathryn Lancioni, PanAmSat, 203/210-8649)