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A summit of leading European pubcasters held in Rome late last month agreed to increase co-operation in both the programming and satellite TV sectors. On the initiative of Italy’s RAI, […]

France’s Lagardere group is to launch a new channel named Match TV based on the concept of the well-known glossy news magazine Paris Match. The service, which will be available […]

Chris Forrester Editor Speaking at the BSkyB AGM last Friday, Rupert Murdoch said that its 24 percent investment in Leo Kirch’s Premiere World had proved to be a disappointment, with […]

Travel agents Thomas Cook will launch a new travel-based service in December this year. Named Thomas Cook TV, it will be available initially as a free-to-air digital satellite channel uplinked […]

The History Channel has linked up with a travel specialist to offer what it claims is a first for a documentary channel, in that viewers to its upcoming “Egypt: Beyond […]

The London-based broadcaster and distribution company Zone Vision has expanded distribution of its Reality TV channel onto the Multichoice DSTV South Africa bouquet. By doing so, it has added some […]

The struggling interactive games service Sportal has been sold for a nominal price to the online gaming company UKbetting. Some eighteen months ago BSkyB paid around GBP10 million for a […]

Paris-based Fashion TV says it expects to reach 1 million viewers a week on Sky Digital during this month. According to BARB data for October, the channel has a UK […]

The Polish satellite channel RTL7 is reported to be in talks with a number of possible buyers including the Church-backed TV Puls, UK company Zone Vision, film distributor SPI and […]

Italy’s Netdish, Fracarro Radioindustrie and Network Teleport Italia (NTI) have announced that the first satellite teleport in Northeast part of the country will become operational this December. Based in Padua, […]

SES Multimedia has disclosed details of the satellite-based, high-speed Internet access service it plans to launch with Deutsche Telekom as an alternative to the latter’s conventional telephone line-based broadband service […]

HOT Networks, the German broadcaster that operates the teleshopping channel Home Shopping Europe (HSE), has announced an ambitious expansion plan. Outlined at last week’s Medientage Munchen media conference, it will […]

Italians satellite TV channels will soon have their own audience ratings thanks to third generation meters to be installed in more than 5,000 sample households by spring 2002. Current estimates […]

By Chris Forrester Anyone who bought stock in the US company Central European Media Enterprises (CME) at under $1 (E1.12) a share just a few weeks ago would have seen […]

Interspace’s In-Depth Study of European satellite activity, compiled by Mike Fallon D = Digital A = Analogue 78.5 degreesE: Thaicom 2&3 D: From Pakistan, PTV1 and Radio Pakistan have left […]

NTL’s $1 billion (E1.12 billion) sale of their satellite uplink and transmission towers business has reportedly interested BBC Technology. It seems the BBC would step in with a pre-agreed bid […]

Hughes has reported better than expected results for Q3. Showing a net addition of 425,000 DirecTV subscribers – as opposed to a projected 235,000 – and a one-time downward adjustment […]

Nick Mitsis Don’t believe for a minute they are merely capacity brokers, and whatever you do, be sure to refuse the notion that global satellite operators are past their prime, […]

According to the US Space Command (USSPACECOM), there are currently around 700 “active” satellites in orbit. Of these some 300 are operated by US civilian, commercial or military interests, with […]

by Chris Forrester With News Corp. suffering a share price slide of around 40 per cent in the last two months, it seems Rupert Murdoch’s aim of adding DirecTV to […]

Gerry Oberst In late July, the U.K. government released a substantial report, two years in the making, to evaluate its funding for civil space activities. Although the United Kingdom has […]

Chris Forrester Editor Eurosport is planning to export its sports, sports news and dot.com trio of services to American, Asian and Far Eastern broadcast markets. According to Vincent Cheupin the […]

Theresa Foley With first generation Ka-band satellite systems still on the ground and far from being a sure thing, the action by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in August to […]

James Careless Some months ago, (December 2000, p. 38-48), Via Satellite profiled the unsung heroes of Satellite News Gathering (SNG). Specifically, we focused on the SNG uplink operators who get […]

The uncertainty surrounding the future of VIVA ZWEI, the ailing sister service of the German music channel VIVA, has been ended by the news that the Cologne-based broadcaster will revamp […]

Italian-based BluSat is the latest company to offer satellite-based broadband services aimed mainly at a business clientele. Already active in Italy and Spain – with plans to expand to Central […]

by Chris Forrester Despite continuing DARS problems in the US, Alcatel and Worldspace have both confirmed their Euro-DAB project will continue with a provisional launch date of late 2004. The […]

Armand Musey XM Radio re-ceivers became available in Dallas and Phoenix in September, the service is rolling out in the southwest in October, and should be available throughout the entire […]

The French food channel Gourmet TV, whose backers include an unnamed Anglo-American company with interests in New York, has delayed its launch by four to six weeks due to the […]

By Chris Forrester British Telecom’s (BT’s) Broadcast Services division say that while they remain confident about filling capacity on new satellites planned for launch, heavily discounted tariffs by some operators […]