| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Communications |
| Founded | 1975; 50 years ago (1975) (asRCA Americom) |
| Defunct | 2009; 16 years ago (2009) |
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | SES World Skies |
| Headquarters | Princeton, New Jersey,United States |
Area served | North America |
| Products | Satellite services |
| Revenue | €261.7 million (Q1-Q3 2008)[1] |
| €63.2 million (Q1-Q3 2008) | |
Number of employees | 414 (2007) |
| Parent | SES |
SES Americom was a major commercialsatellite operator of North Americangeosynchronous satellites based in theUnited States. The company started asRCA Americom in 1975 before being bought byGeneral Electric in 1986 and then later acquired bySES in 2001. In September 2009, SES Americom andSES New Skies merged intoSES World Skies.[2]
RCA American Communications (RCA Americom) was founded in 1975 as an operator ofRCA Astro Electronics-built satellites. The company's first satellite;Satcom 1, was launched on 12 December 1975. Satcom 1 was one of the earliest geostationary satellites.
Satcom 1 was instrumental in helping early cable TV channels (such asSuperstation TBS andCBN) to become initially successful, because these channels distributed their programming to all of the local cable TVheadends using the satellite. Additionally, it was the first satellite used by broadcast TV networks in the United States, likeAmerican Broadcasting Company (ABC),NBC, andCBS, to distribute their programming to all of their local affiliate stations.Satcom 1 was so widely used because it had twice the communications capacity of the competingWestar 1 (24 transponders as opposed to Westar 1's 12), which resulted in lower transponder usage costs. 14 more (increasingly sophisticated) Satcom satellites would enter service from 1976 to 1992.
In 1986,General Electric acquired RCA and renamed the Americom unit to GE American Communications (GE Americom). From 1996 new satellites were named in the GE-# series, i.e. GE-1 in 1996, GE-2 in 1997 etc.
In November 2001, GE sold its GE Americom unit toSES for US$5 billion in cash and stock. As a result of the sale, GE Americom was renamed SES Americom and SES Global was formed as the parent company. SES's existing operations were moved to the newly created SES Astra subsidiary.[3][4] SES formerly bought a satellite from failedDirect broadcast satellite (DBS) company Crimson Satellite Associates and GE Americom while still under construction byGE AstroSpace (asSatcom K3).[5] RenamedAstra 1B and modified for use as a European direct broadcasting satellite and a part of the Astra DBS constellation, it was launched to add extra capacity to thesatellite television services from19.2° East, servingGermany, theUnited Kingdom andRepublic of Ireland.
After the acquisition of GE Americom by SES, all the satellites previously named with the GE-# prefix were renamed AMC-# (i.e., GE-1 renamed AMC-1, and so on).[6]
The President and CEO of the new SES Americom was Dean Olmstead.[7] He left the company in 2004 and was succeeded by Edward Horowitz. SES Americom was subsequently placed under Robert Bednarek, the President and CEO of SES New Skies.[8]
In September 2009, SES Americom andSES New Skies were re-brandedSES World Skies.[9]
Before being merged into SES World Skies in 2009 (which expanded coverage toMiddle East andAfrica), SES Americom operated the following North American satellites in geosynchronous orbit:[10]
