NAB 2019 Reflections: SES's Steve Corda and MX1's Susanna Mandel-Mantello on the Growth of 4K, Power of Live Sports The execs call for broadcasters to launch full-time 4K channels By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, May 1, 2019 - 11:00 am
Print This Story
SES and MX1 had a busy week in Vegas during NAB 2019, touting SES's growing 4K Ultra HD platform, and a host of MX1 solutions, including the MX1 360 unified media platform, the new broadcast-scale Online Video Platform (OVP), the company's OU Flex service, and an enhanced sports- and events-management tool paired with a new live-events booking platform.
SVG sat down with SES VP of Business Development Steve Corda and MX1 VP/Head of Sales, Sports, and Events Susanna Mandel-Mantello to discuss the growing market for 4K UHD, MX1's offerings at the show, and more.
On the MX1 side of things, what were the primary announcements and demos at NAB 2019?
MX1 VP/Head of Sales, Sports, and Events Susanna Mandel-Mantello
Mandel-Mantello: At the NAB Show, MX1 showed its MX1 360 unified media platform for managing and delivering linear and nonlinear content to any broadcast, VOD, or OTT platform. This powerful, next-generation platform enables broadcasters and service providers to offer a full range of end-to-end services, as well as successfully aggregate, manage, and deliver linear and nonlinear content. With MX1 360, one platform does it all, delivering a one-stop shop for broadcasters to handle all their content requirements - from preparing, packaging, managing, and validating high-quality content to reliable playout and optimal delivery for multiscreen viewing.
One of the enhancements demonstrated for MX1 360 at NAB was a new sports- and events-management interface for individual matches to team sports with any group of licensees from around the world, aimed at sports and event content owners and distributors. The new interface, managed through the MX1 360 unified media platform, allows sports and event organizations and rightsholders to easily manage and share broadcast-quality media containing matches, clips, and highlights, as well as related images, documents, metadata, and more.
Also on display was the company's new live-events booking interface, which connects MX1's sports and events customers with its 24/7 live-events booking team, simplifying the planning, monitoring, and coordination of live-event-content distribution. The booking interface features one-click sharing of live events with licensees from around the world, who receive real-time notifications and access to mission-critical distribution details. The integrated solution can be used for both single-live-event management and more-complex sports tournaments with multiple concurrent live events.
SES VP of Business Development Steve Corda
Can you provide an update on SES's 4K Ultra HD platform and where you see the 4K UHD market headed this year?
Corda: We're seeing a lot of progress in Ultra HD across North America. More 4K TVs are now being delivered than HD TVs, signaling [that] the penetration is growing significantly. If you assume one TV per household, 100 million paid-TV households, we're at about the 50% level.
One of the major bottlenecks has always been set-top boxes, but we are now seeing a lot more [4K-capable] set-top boxes being deployed - hundreds of thousands in some of the larger, tier-one MVPDs.
And our growing, core set of 4K channels that we launched a few years ago is flourishing. We now have about 35 MVPDs on the SES Ultra HD platform. All of the tier-ones have been testing and trialing 4K with us, leveraging our lineup of nearly a dozen 4K channels. That represents the largest bouquet of 4K content in the world.
Consumer appetite for quality 4K is being satisfied by an increasing number of pay-TV providers, thanks to the availability of quality 4K content, 4K set-top boxes, and SES's Ultra HD platform. The SES UHD solution combines great content, satellite distribution, and reception gear into an offering that is easily integrated into cable, IPTV, and DTH systems.
Our 4K channels offer up compelling content and have been very well received in TV markets across the U.S. and North America. A challenge of course is that we have yet to see the big brands come on board. The channels have content coming from the same studios as the brand names, but it's all about brand recognition. The channels on the SES platform offer hundreds of hours of great content, including Travelxp and Insight TV - which were among the first 4K HDR channels to hit the market and arguably among the best channels on television today.
How much of a driver is live sports content in the growth of 4K UHD adoption?
Corda: In my view, the most compelling content [in 4K] has always been sports. We've carried lots of sports, including the Olympics for NBC, some sports with iNDEMAND, and most recently, last fall, college football and Major League Baseball postseason games with Fox Sports.
SES is keenly focused on sports, having stood up two events channels that are available 24/7 for anyone looking to distribute sports to the MVPDs and their affiliates. We've done some sports this year already and see ourselves delivering an extremely large number of sports events this year - probably 10 times what we enabled last year.
A broad range of sports distributors have seen the tremendous success we're having in live 4K sports, and they're ready to leverage our platform right now. These are the brand names as well as a few that are just starting out and getting the rights to some very interesting sports content. We're carrying at least one sporting event a week currently, sometimes two or three events a week. We expect we're going to probably be running full-time with a few of the major events this summer.
W
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
NAB 2019 Reflections: SES's Steve Corda and MX1's Susanna Mandel-Mantello on the Growth of 4K, Power of Live Sports The execs call for broadcasters to launch full-time 4K channels By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
