E-letter: News Feed

QVC has resolved technical difficulties that have prevented the home shopping service from offering an impulse buy facility on its Sky Digital feed. In the past few days QVC has […]

It seems another planned LEO service has hit the financial brick-wall. Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. (MCHI), a Washington-based company planning to deploy the proposed Ellipso mobile satellite service (MSS) system, […]

In a move that would end the somehow absurd situation of transmitting free-to-air to analogue DTH viewers but not to digital homes, MTV 2 – The Pop Channel, MTV’s sister […]

Former Channel 5 CEO David Elstein has roundly condemned current UK thinking on the analogue switch-off date, which will take place when 95 per cent of homes have converted to […]

TV Travel Shop Germany launched on June 1 15.30 CET to a broad analogue DTH community in German-speaking Europe equivalent to more than 13 million homes. The channel, which transmits […]

The Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore has officially launched a specialist business TV channel after a month’s trial. Known as Ventiquattrore.tv, the service – which has just secured […]

The first fruits of Pace Micro Technology’s acquisition of French manufacturer Xcom were revealed at Mediacast in London last month, and the much-heralded ‘basic’ receiver turned out to be anything […]

Radio 22, a local FM youth channel based in Trier, intends to become available to a pan-European audience by transmitting on the Astra satellite system (19.2 degrees East). This was […]

Does the French space agency CNES aim to supplant the ESA in developing new communications satellite technologies? Earlier this year, CNES evolved a plan (TCS-21, Technology for Communications by Satellite) […]

A Tehran news agency has reported that Iran will launch Zohreh, its Russian-built communications satellite, within two years. The agency quoted university professor Mehran Mirshams as saying that the Zohreh […]

The number of two-way broadband Internet via satellite services keeps growing, with the latest new entrant being Galaxy 2000, operated by UK-based dealer Bentley Walker. The service which was recently […]

Four and a half years after the beginning of the privatisation process, the German state is set to lose its majority stake in Deutsche Telekom. After the Bonn-based company’s take […]

Interspace’s in-depth study of European satellite activity, compiled by Mike Fallon D = Digital A = Analog 100.5 degreesE: AsiaSat 2 D AsiaSat 2 capacity is to be used by […]

The German music company Edel Music will sell its 12.1 per cent stake in VIVA to Initiatoren Drei Kapitalbeteiligung, a newly founded investment company formed by VIVA Media’s chairman Dieter […]

UPC’s Polish digital DTH platform Wizja TV has started transmitting Telewizja Polska’s (TVP’s) two national channels TVP1 and TVP2. Although the move has been criticised by TVP – which was […]

It seems another planned LEO service has hit the financial brick-wall. Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. (MCHI), a Washington-based company planning to deploy the proposed Ellipso mobile satellite service (MSS) system, […]

The Andalucian regional station RTVA and production company Andalucia Digital Multimedia have launched Canal Andalucia Turismo, a thematic channel dedicated to promoting tourism in Andalucia in the south of Spain. […]

The BBC has secured a third transponder (#38) from Astra at 28.2 degrees East. The contract, which is for five years, will allow the broadcaster to introduce its multiple screen […]

Eurosport News, the sister service of pan-European sports network Eurosport covering sports news, has become available to German households for the first time, albeit through an unconventional way of transmission. […]

The BBC and UK cableco NTL are set to launch a new sports channel named British Sport. The service, which will be created by NTL subsidiary Premium Television and backed […]

BSkyB has taken full control of its t-commerce arm Open by buying out minority partner British Telecom’s 19.9 per cent stake for a maximum GBP387 million (E626.9) in an all-paper […]

Advent International has invested $12million in the London-based multichannel operator Zone Vision. The money will be used to boost the company’s expansion, especially of its Romantica, Reality TV and adult […]

Despite the downturn in the so-called dot.com ‘boom’, the past four years has seen internet traffic using satellite grow by an average of 56 per cent a year, says a […]

Italian police made 364 raids on as many Rome commercial venues during a recent Juventus-Roma soccer match and subsequently levelled charges against 143 owners of bars and restaurants for using […]

A=Analog D=Digital 68.5 degreesE: PAS 4 & 7 D The replacement for PAS 4, PAS 10, was successfully launched from Baikonur on May 15 at 01:11 aboard a Proton rocket. […]

Swiss encryption specialists Nagra Kudelski has bought Lysis Int. for SF110 million (E62.8). Lysis provides content owners and broadcasters with software designed to create and operate value-added content including VOD […]

Ericsson is suing LEO platform GlobalStar for $31 million in damages for failing to buy enough handsets. According to a Globalstar SEC filing, Ericsson claims Globalstar failed to honour two […]

Discovery Channel claims it has now topped 15 million subscribers in Latin America and the Iberian peninsular. In a separate development, GlobeCast has won a contract to distribute Trinity Broadcast […]

Alcatel is set to buy Thales’ 48.8 per cent share in its Alcatel Space joint venture. Under the terms of the deal, which is subject to European Commission approval, it […]

RTL Television, Germany’s leading commercial broadcaster, has revealed making a large financial loss this year due to its coverage of the Champions League football tournament. On average, only around 5.85 […]