E-letter: News Feed

Dispelling mounting speculation that News Corp has given up on its Italian TV ambitions, Rupert Murdoch and Telecom Italia president Roberto Colaninno met for the first time ever on July […]

The German Disney Channel planned by Buena Vista Germany GmbH has finally received its cable and satellite licence from Bavarian media authority Bayerische Landeszentrale fur neue Medien (BLM). The approval, […]

Italian media conglomerate Cecchi Gori Group (CGC) is seeking foreign partners to relaunch its ailing terrestrial TV channels (TMC and TMC2), which lose money and fail to draw more than […]

Patrick Le Lay, head of French media group TF1, speaking at the Vieilles Charrues festival, revealed some details about the forthcoming Bretton channel, TV Breizh. Le Lay said that he […]

In a controversial move, German media company Kirch Group has decided to cancel all contracts with third party channels that have been using its digital DF1 platform with effect from […]

The worldwide corporate business TV channel planned by German-American automobile company Daimler-Chrysler (Interspace 671) has launched test transmissions for Europe on Eutelsat’s Hot Bird 3 satellite at 13 degrees East. […]

Europe Online Networks (EON), has contracted additional capacity on the Astra satellite system at 19.2 degrees East and has established a smaller platform at 28.2 degrees East to develop its […]

Bollywood For You (B4U) is a new 24-hour digital premium channel launching on August 26 for Asian viewers on Astra 2A. The channel will charge Pounds 9.99 as a stand-alone […]

Astrolink, the Lockheed Martin/ Telespazio/TRW-backed broadband satellite project, has closed a $900 million equity investment, initially announced in May. Astrolink secured the investment following regulatory approval for the project on […]

Russia’s Media Most broadcasting group has strongly refuted reports that it is in severe financial trouble. Media Most which owns, among other things, the NTV satellite channels and the Segodnya […]

78.5 degrees E: Thaicom-2&3 D. As mentioned in Transponder Monitor 14 July, Thaicom has signed a carriage deal with Turkey’s TRT to feed TRT International and the radio service, Voice […]

Studio Universal, the pay-TV movie channel operated by Universal Studios Networks Germany, will most probably be able to launch, as planned, on 1 September. Following the directors of the 15 […]

The established Middle Eastern DTH broadcasters are soon to be joined by the long-awaited MMDS service for Saudi Arabia… The long-awaited launch of a Saudi Arabian multichannel MMDS system is […]

Troubled MSS operator Iridium has invoked a 30-day grace period for the payment of $90 million in interest due on July 15 on its $1.45 billion outstanding senior notes. The […]

For the first time ever, Italian football fans face the prospect of having to subscribe to both digital platforms in order to follow the complete 1999-2000 season on pay-TV. On […]

Canal Plus has published its quarterly subscription figures, revealing a total subscription figure for the end of June of 12,301,320. According to Canal Plus, this represented an increase of 16 […]

France Telecom’s $1 billion investment in UK cable operator NTL (with a promise of "more to come") may have implications beyond the realm of cable TV and telecoms. Besides its […]

SPAIN’S Hispasat, owned by Telefonica and Retevision, has confirmed it is planning to enhance its coverage over Latin America and over Europe and North Africa. Hispasat 1C, scheduled to be […]

Multimedia applications such as high-speed Internet access via satellite and other broadband data services are to form the focus of presentations by satellite operators Eutelsat and SES at the IFA […]

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter believe Spanish pay-TV operator Sogecable is in an "excellent position" to take advantage of "one of Europe’s most attractive pay-TV markets." Sogecable, operator […]

Kirch Group’s digital bouquet DF-1 has given notice of termination of contracts to a number of third party channels, effective from September. Channels affected include BBC Prime. A spokeswoman said: […]

Music Choice Europe’s (MCE) CEO Stuart Graber has quit the company (although he will continue as a consultant) to set up a specialist Internet and new media investment company. MCE’s […]

BSkyB has refused to confirm or deny suggestions that it is requesting a Pounds 15 million indemnity from any third party wishing to provide OpenTV applications to its digital set-top […]

Interactive service Open…is to target females in a major marketing drive this autumn. It is understood that it has committed to a heavyweight presence in women’s magazines and plans a […]

Teledesic has apparently responded to recent negative coverage in the trade press by releasing outline details of a launch contract concluded last week with Internatinonal Launch Services (ILS), the US-Russian […]

CNNI is looking to launch an opt-out service for India, in the English language, with India-specific programming. CNNI is also closely examining markets where other local-language versions would make commercial […]

Hughes Network Systems’ European VSAT subsidiary, Milton Keynes-based HOT Telecommunications, which also markets the DirecPC service in Europe, unveiled its third satellite earth station last week. HOT managing director Mike […]

Italian TV holding Mediaset has increased its stake in Spanish private channel Telecinco, from 25 to 40 per cent. The quota, worth L300 billion (Pounds 101 million), was previously held […]

166 degrees E: PAS-8 D. TV Nacional de Chile has leased a C-Band digital stream on PAS-8 to extend its coverage to Asia and the Pacific Rim. The signal is […]

United Pan-Europe Communications, best known as one of Europe’s leading cable operators, is also set to become a major satellite pay-TV operator. The company’s president, Mark Schneider, talked to Interspace […]