Suddenlink Doubles VOD Capacity

Leveraging SeaChange/Broadbus technology for its Motorola markets and ARRIS technology for its Cisco markets, St. Louis-based Suddenlink has doubled the capacity of its video on demand (VOD) service from 10,000 hours to 20,000 hours in most areas where VOD is available.

"We have two locations (for disaster backup) where we catch content and then multicast across our national backbone to 25 VOD pumps," says Gene Regan, a spokesman for Suddenlink.

The expansion is part of Suddenlink’s Project Imagine, a capital-investment program started in 2009 that calls for approximately $350 million in additional funding over three years compared with traditional capital-spending levels.

Although today’s announcement pertains to the expansion of the company’s VOD capacity, the MSO also is working on adding significantly more VOD content by year’s end. The operator now offers more than 8,000 VOD titles, including movies, sports, news, music and cable-network shows, with many choices available in high-definition (HD) format and several available in 3D. More than a third of its VOD library is free.

Suddenlink has expanded the reach of its VOD service significantly to more than 78 percent of it customers. In April, it purchased NPG Cable for approximately $350 million with operations in St. Joseph, Mo.; Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; and several clustered Arizona communities, including Flagstaff and Sedona, Lake Havasu and Kingman. The VOD upgrade will be completed in these former NPG communities later this year.

-Linda Hardesty