With its commercial launch only weeks away, IP Prime – the IPTV satellite service developed by SES Americom – today announced major additions to its channel lineup, including programming from Comcast Networks, Fox Cable Networks, NBC Universal, Showtime Networks, and Turner Broadcasting System.

IP Prime now has a 350-channel lineup and transport agreements with 40 major programmers, representing a significant source of content from IPTV service providers, including Tier 2 and Tier 3 telephones companies.

“We have put together platform that has brought together a number of different constituents – to help telcos get into the business of IPTV,” said Bryan McGuirk, president of media and enterprise services for SES Americom. “We went out and got the best programming – most people doubted we could do it, but we have 350 channels including all the best.”

SES Americom originally partnered with the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative, which represents 1000 rural telcos pursuing advanced technology, and is now working with the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association as well, McGuirk said.

The service is current in tests with four rural telcos, but will be launched commercially “within a couple of weeks,” McGuirk said.

“We have done trials with four telcos in four different states, made them centers of excellence in their area,” he said. “Hundreds of telcos have come to look at the technology working.”

But while IP Prime is launching with eager content-starved rural telcos, the service is not limited to that market, McGuirk emphasized.

“This is much more than small to mid-sized play or rural play,” he said. “BellSouth has been trialing our service since November of ’05. The expectation is they will be part of AT&T’s IPTV service. But we have shown we can plug and play with Tier 1, tier 2 and Tier 3.”

IP Prime also includes “virtually everything that exists in HD [high definition] and that is going to double this year,” he said. “We will leave no channel behind. If they bring HD, we are going to put it on IP Prime.”

He attributes SES Americom’s ability to put together a content package relatively quickly at a time when so many companies are working hard to assemble content to the company’s long-standing relationships with the cable and content players.

“What’s different here is that we have been in the video business for 30 years,” McGuirk said. “We have been agnostic provider of video to cable – they trust we will provide their content safely and high quality. They naturally trusted us and we have lived up to that trust.”