E-letter: News Feed

The proposed merger between Carlton Communications and United News & Media (UN&M) – besides managing to infuriate both BSkyB and Granada – could bring together two UK broadcasters with a […]

The Adam Faith-backed Money Channel, due on air in February, reported losses for its first half-year Pounds 638,000 for the six months to September 30, in line with company expectations. […]

Italian pay-TV operator Telepiu is facing major problems in supplying its new subscribers with the Goldbox receivers needed to receive its digital bouquet. In order to resolve the problem, Telepiu […]

Japan’s ministry of transport lost its multi-functional Transport Satellite on November 15 when its H-II launcher suffered a first stage shut-down four minutes after lift-off. The 2.9 tonne MTSat-1 was […]

Wide differences have emerged in the take-up of digital television between different social segments, according to the University of Leeds’s Centre for Future Communications. Research director Michael Svennevig told a […]

Kirch Group has arranged credit facilities amounting to DM3 billion (Euro1.5 billion) for financing its digital pay-TV venture Premiere World. According to a statement issued by Kirch Pay-TV last week, […]

United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) may seek a merger between its Polish cable and DTH platform @Entertainment and rival Canal Plus Polska, according to UPC president Mark Schneider. "The future for […]

The NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia said on November 26 that it was preparing to shut down a Bosnian Croat television station if negotiations with the body overseeing the […]

Middle East broadcaster ART may abandon the pay-TV business… Middle East platform Arab Radio & Television (ART) has confirmed to Interspace that it may quit pay-TV. While no decision has […]

Viasat Broadcasating, radio and publishing are the top performing business areas in Modern Times Group’s third quarter results, just released. Net sales across the Swedish-based company increased from SKr2,613 million […]

Key: D = Digital A = Analogue 68.5 degrees E: PAS-4 & 7 A. Sima-yeh Moghavemat, the Iranian opposition TV channel that is licensed by the ITC in the UK, […]

Italy’s Communications Ministry has postponed a key decision on whether MTV Italia can retain the free-to-air terrestrial broadcasting licence that currently gives it access to millions of Italian TV homes. […]

Globalstar successfully launched an additional four LEO satellites on November 22 on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur, bringing the total number of Globalstar satellites now in space to 48 and […]

Italian electricity utility Enel has received the necessary go-ahead from the EU to take a 30 per cent in Canal Plus-led digital platform Telepiu, but is facing criticism from leading […]

Russia’s ORT International, a satellite version of Russia’s most popular channel, was commercially launched over Europe on November 29 by Telenor subsidiary Colorsat. The new channel is created especially for […]

Youth channel Rapture has joined the Sky Digital line up on Astra, increasing its carriage by a third to approximately 5.7 million homes including analogue satellite and cable. Rapture, owned […]

BSkyB’s director of interactive programming Steve Billinger left on November 19. Billinger denied he had been upset by the appointment of John Swingewood (from BT) as head of BSkyB’s new […]

Telenor is upgrading its presence in the UK with a move to new offices that will also include its own uplink facilities. The new offices in Bernard Street, central London, […]

Iran is to set up a space organisation with either Chinese or Indian help, according the deputy post, telegraph and telephone minister, Mehdi Tabeshian, speaking at the second international conference […]

Two channels for France specialising in tourism, but with very different approaches, are on the launch pad. VTV International, based in Madrid, has launched Tele Vacances in France. The channel […]

Hackers have apparently managed to crack the encryption systems of most Europe’s major pay-TV operators, according to a report in weekly German news magazine Focus. The magazine said in a […]

TPS has introduced a second decoder option, called Option Confort, to enable different members of the same household to watch different programmes on the TPS bouquet or to record one […]

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter say they expect BSkyB to achieve total digital sales of 2.4 million by the end of December. BSkyB’s net additions in the last […]

Norway’s Canal Digital is launching yet another service in its four Nordic territories of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The newcomer, which will launch on November 8, is Cinecinemas, managed […]

An alliance made up of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, Telecom Italia and German media magnate Leo Kirch may yet be the white knight that will save fledgling Italian TV network […]

The second failure of a Proton launcher in four months, and with it the loss of a satellite Russia badly needed, has left the hard pressed Russian satellite communications industry […]

A&E’s History Channel is expected shortly to confirm three new distribution agreements for the Asian and Far East region. Whitney Goit, executive vice president, A&E TV Networks, said the three […]

Key: D = Digital A = Analog 105.5 degrees E: Asiasat-3S A. Zee TV has launched a new, exclusively Punjabi-language channel called Alpha Punjabi on 3900 MHz vertical in clear […]

German media company Pro Sieben Group managed to increase turnover and profit during the first nine months of this year. Profit before tax climbed by DM10.3 million (Euro5.3 million) to […]

Leo Kirch’s digital pay-TV package Premiere World is to get some unexpected competition: Dusseldorf-based media house Rheinische Post plans to enter the German pay-TV market. Media company Deutsche Fernsehnachrich-ten Agentur […]