HITS Announces ETV Solutions for Cable Programming Networks

DENVER, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- HITS®, a business unit of the Comcast Media Center (CMC – booth #2141 at The Cable Show 2010) that provides content management and distribution solutions for the cable industry, announced today a managed solution designed to reduce the costs and improve the process for delivering enhanced television (ETV) applications to cable systems.

HITS AxIS™ ETV Solutions for Programmers include data PID (packet ID) distribution, management, and monitoring from HITS Advanced Interactive Services (AxIS). This service allows cable programming networks to deliver ETV applications without integrating them into their linear programming, incurring incremental transponder costs, or impacting video quality.  Because the HITS AxIS platform delivers the data feed terrestrially, a television programming network can add ETV applications without affecting its existing satellite loading or the quality of its audio and video distribution. The HITS AxIS managed solution also allows content providers to deliver ETV applications that are tailored to their cable operator affiliates and the markets they serve.

In addition, HITS AxIS ETV Solutions for Programmers offer management and monitoring capabilities and Campaign Information Package (CIP) scheduling integration to insure applications perform as designed and are delivered to the right cable system at the right time.  Since HITS AxIS serves as a programming network's single point-of-contact for ETV distribution, it shifts the burden for monitoring ETV applications at each cable affiliate's headend from the video programmer to HITS AxIS, which is delivering the application to participating cable operators.  This can also accelerate the process for identifying and resolving service issues.

"Our content distribution and interactive video management capabilities allow us to provide programming networks with cost-effective options for delivering their ETV applications across a network's entire footprint, or for delivering individual applications to specific cable markets," stated Gary Traver, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Comcast Media Center.  "HITS AxIS ETV Solutions also take advantage of ample terrestrial bandwidth with a comprehensive approach toward quality assurance, which is essential for delivering a high quality experience to digital cable customers."

HITS AxIS ETV Solutions for Programmers leverage the CMC's vast content ingest, management and distribution resources.  This includes the Interactive Video Services master control room, IVIS, which provides ETV application hosting, satellite transmission delivery via widely viewed domestic satellites, fiber transport to cable system headends, advanced video compression using MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards, and 24/7 monitoring for more than 400+ linear channel feeds.

Programming networks using ETV distribution solutions will have access to remote management capabilities, ETV application hosting, applications testing using production cable headend architecture, launch support, defined intervals for application monitoring, tier 1 and tier 2 customer service escalation support, and a series of customized reporting options.  

About HITS

HITS is operated by Denver-based Comcast Media Center (CMC), a subsidiary of Comcast Cable, which provides centralized content management and distribution solutions for cable systems, video content providers and advertisers.  More information about HITS and the CMC is available at http://www.comcastmediacenter.com.

HITS and other marks used are trademarks or registered trademarks of Comcast. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Comcast Media Center