E-letter: News Feed

NDS has acquired interactive TV application software company VISIONIK in a deal worth up to $14 million. VISIONIK has built its reputation in recent years on enhanced TV shows and […]

Canal+ Horizons, the African subsidiary of French pay-TV group Canal Plus, has launched a digital package to DTH viewers on the African continent. The bouquet uses the NSS-7 satellite (21.5 […]

Key: D – Digital A – Analogue 83 degreesE: Insat 2E&3B D – Doordarshan’s DD8 for Andhra Pradesh in South East India on 3980 MHz vertical, SR 5000, FEC 3/4 […]

In a move reflecting the slow growth of digital television in Germany, Deutsche Telekom has decided to close down its loss-making digital pay-TV platform MediaVision. The bouquet, which was launched […]

EchoStar Communications and a satellite industry trade group lost their bid for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments on satellite “must carry” rules that require direct broadcast satellite (DBS) […]

Key: D – Digital A – Analogue 100.5 degreesE: Asiasat 2 D – Pakistan TV (PTV) have announced that they are to launch a dedicated news channel on July 1. […]

Canal+ Technologies CEO Francois Carayol is looking to take participate actively in the consolidation of the conditional access (CA) system and middleware industry consolidation. He told the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ European Media […]

Embratel has launched Business IP Sat, a new satellite Internet service designed to tap into the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) markets in Brazil. The services are aimed at SMEs […]

AsiaSat is making a further investment in SpeedCast, a broadband enabler of satellite-based services in the Asia Pacific region. AsiaSat is injecting a further $4 million by way of cash […]

In an effort to reduce its operational costs, the highly indebted Kirch Group has implemented a far-reaching cost savings plan, which will affect not only its core business, but also […]

In a move that could breath new life into Deutsche Telekom’s aging DFS Kopernikus 1 FM3 satellite, the Greek-Cypriote consortium Hellas-Sat has decided to take over the bird and move […]

Although U.S. satellite operators have bitten the bullet and gone ahead with the development of large Ka-band satellite systems, Europeans operators are merely dipping their toes in the higher frequency […]

Last year will not go down as one of the greatest for satellite operators. In fact, with capacity pricing pressure and harsh operating conditions, the game for many was about […]

Arianespace has been boosted by the announcement of three new contract awards for the DirecTV-7s, iPSTAR-1 and Star One C1 satellites. “We are pleased that despite the market downturn, we […]

New Skies gained revenues of $51.8 million in the first quarter of 2002. This was an increase of $600,000 over the same quarter last year. The Dutch satellite operator also […]

AsiaSat has postponed the launch of its AsiaSat 4 satellite, scheduled for this month, until next year. The Asian satellite company hopes to announce a new date in the next […]

In a move that comes as no surprise, troubled German media company Kirch Group has placed its Kirch Pay-TV unit into insolvency. Premiere, Kirch Group’s ill-fated pay-TV broadcaster whose heavy […]

BSkyB is on a roll at the moment. The demise of ITV Digital can only be good news for the satellite operator as it continues to cement its position as […]

Swiss public broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse has decided to cease its usage of the Astra Digital Radio (ADR) system in favour of the MPEG-2/DVB standard. The ADR transmissions “will […]

Static2358 hopes to make inroads into the lucrative U.S. market this year. Static, which operates the highly successful PlayJam channel on BSkyB, wants to bring the concept of multiplayer gaming […]

Key: D – Digital A – Analogue 83 degreesE: Insat 2E & 3B D – The Hindi language channel Asianet is present on 3694 MHz vertical, SR 4340, FEC 3/4, […]

Last week saw the launch of the latest Star Wars film, “Attack of the Clones.” Appropriately, the film was “beamed” from space to the Ritzy Theatre in London’s Leicester Square, […]

German commercial TV channel RTL II intends to launch a sister service in 2004 that shows Japanese cartoons 24 hours a day. According to RTL II’s managing director Josef Andorfer, […]

Hispasat has gained permission from the regulatory authorities to offer commercial satellite services in Paraguay. The authorization was obtained from the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL). The deal was signed […]

The launch of DirecTV’s DirecTV 5 satellite failed to take place as scheduled on May 6 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It was scheduled to blast off on May […]

In a development that further increases the already large number of free-to-air TV channels targeting German viewers, several new TV stations have launched or are about to launch in Europe’s […]

Hughes Networks Systems (HNS) has launched its DirecWay two-way satellite broadband service in Europe. At the same time, HNS announced that the opening of its new European operations centre in […]

Last week, PanAmSat signed a deal to lease one of its satellites to Middle Eastern satellite provider ArabSat. The PAS-5 satellite is a Boeing 601 HP model with 24 Ku-band […]

Key: D – Digital A – Analogue 78.5 degreesE: Thaicom 2&3 D – It appears the Thailand’s Travel TV has left 3572 MHz horizontal, SR 6310, FEC 1/2 where it […]

XM Satellite Radio increased its subscriber base in the first quarter of 2002 by 175 percent. It announced April 23 that it had added almost 50,000 new subscribers in the […]