BRIGHT FUTURE FOR DBS
Stephen Blum, president of industry analysts Tellus Venture Associates, forecasts a buoyant future for DirecTV and Echostar’s DBS services over North America. He says that DBS, despite cable’s massive penetration...
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ICO SECURES FINANCE
ICO Global Communications has secured a definitive agreement with Craig McCaw’s Eagle River Investments, throwing a lifeline to the MSS operator, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since last...
ARIANESPACE TO FUND ISKY
One of the lesser-known Ka-band satellite contenders may beat Hughes Spaceway and Lockheed Martin-backed Astrolink into commercial service. The outsider is iSky, formerly known as KaStar. The company was founded...
NEW SAT LAW FOR ITALY
Italy’s Telecommunications Authority has now drafted national satellite television regulations that should end years of legislative uncertainty. It will also regularise the status of the country’s two pay-TV operators, Telepiù...
GLOBALSTAR ON
Globalstar launched in four countries in Europe last week. The MSS operator’s partner, Telecommunications par Satellites Mobile (TE.SA.M), a joint venture between France Telecom and Alcatel, said it expected to...
VIA DIGITAL MAY MERGE WITH DTT
Telefonica Media, Telefonica’s media subsidiary, and Spanish digital terrestrial operator Onda Digital’s shareholders (Endesa, Union Fenosa and Telecom Italia) are studying the possibility of merging the two digital platforms in...
NEW SHAREHOLDER FOR VIA DIGITAL
Via Digital has completed the capital extension approved last December 13, increasing the capital value of the company by Ptas 31,488,750,000 (Euro 190 million) and giving it a total value...
MSS MAY FACE 'NUCLEAR THREAT'
Sat 2000 was highly focused on (or obsessed by) the problems surrounding the industry’s two recent high profile MSS failures, namely Iridium and ICO. Numerous reports at the convention suggest...
ORF BETACRYPT
Austrian public broadcaster ORF has formalised its decision to use Kirch Group’s d-box encryption system Betacrypt for the satellite transmission of its domestic television channels on Astra (19.2 degrees East)....
MIXED FUTURES PREDICTED FOR LEOS
Independent analysts and investment bankers revealed markedly divergent views on the prospects for the future of global mobile at last week’s Sat 2000 conference in Washington DC… Mixed fortunes were...