Staff Writer

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter has given a ‘neutral’ rating to Silvio Berlusconi’s broadcasting company Mediaset, currently the subject of sell-off rumours involving News Corp (see Interspace 682). Morgan Stanley argues […]

London-based media consultancy Inview Media has won a major marketing contract from The Money Channel. The agreement follows Inview’s ongoing negotiations for the distribution of the channel throughout Europe. In […]

Described as Europe’s only network to cater exclusively for family entertainment, the Dream Family Network (DFN) went live last week (December 1) from Sirius 2. Dream Family Network is backed […]

European satellite operator Eutelsat launched a new thematic arts channel on December 12 launched, which will be on the air up till December 31. Ars TV Eutelsat Premium Channel is […]

KTO (pronounced Kato, the same as Catho, the common abbreviation for Catholic) is to launch on Lyonnaise Câ ble on December 13. The channel, with an annual budget of FFr30 […]

The European Commission has decided to initiate a close examination in the planned creation of Astrium, the company into which German Daimler Chrysler Aerospace (Dasa) and Matra Marconi Space want […]

Poland’s leading private broadcaster Polsat has started negotiations with Canal Plus Polska to take a stake in TKP, the holding company for the latter’s digital platform, Cyfra Plus and the […]

Italian pay-TV operator Stream has plenty of reasons to celebrate the year that is closing, which brought it new shareholders as well as very encouraging subscriber figures. According to figures […]

Swiss publishing house Ringier can take a stake in Sat 1 Schweiz AG, the company which has been producing a window for Swiss cable viewers as part of the German-based […]

Leading Italian pay-TV operator Telepiu has released the latest subscriber figures for its analogue and digital services. According to company president and CEO Michel Thoulouze, Telepiu has 500,000 analogue and […]

Italian TV and film conglomerate Cecchi Gori Group (CGG) has rejected a plan to sell off a majority interest in its ailing TMC TV unit and also decided to put […]

The planned Inmarsat fourth-generation satellite system, for broadband traffic at up to 431Kbit/s, has been the subject of Requests for Proposals (for manufacturing) issued earlier this month. Inmarsat says that […]

As expected, BSkyB last week secured its interest in Leo Kirch’s Premiere World pay-TV platform in Germany, taking a 24 per cent stake in KirchPayTV GmbH. The deal is subject […]

Pan-European sports channel Eurosport is to be made available within the digital free-to-air package of German public broadcaster ZDF. According to a statement, a contract was signed last week by […]

by James Careless There’s likely no satellite region more complex and challenging to comprehend than the Middle East. At the heart of the situation is, of course, the ongoing Israeli/Arab […]

By Cynthia Boeke The past year has been an eventful one, notable for what happened, as well as for what failed to materialize. In the latter category, two multibillion-dollar mobile […]

by Scott Chase Ask Arthur C. Clarke, entrepreneur, inventor, adventurer and, for many, the "father" of communications via satellite, what futures he sees for mankind in the new century, and […]

by Robustiano Fernandez Europe is a study in contrasts. To many overseas observers, it presents an increasingly unified and sophisticated front, and in many respects Europe is a united, if […]

by James Careless This year has been better than 1998 for the Asia-Pacific satellite community, but not by much. On the technical side, it’s been a mixed bag: Asiasat 3S […]

by Amanda L. Kazdoy Satellite industry experts tend to agree that Africa is in dire need of basic telecommunications services, particularly in rural communities. As developing regions are becoming more […]

by Theresa Foley Russia enters the new millennium planning to launch several new, modern satellites that should improve the transponder shortage of the late 1990s. However, Russia’s enormous problems in […]

by Theresa Foley Before year’s end, several satellite service providers will be carrying one Gbps worth of Internet traffic each as the demand for satellite delivery of Internet services continues. […]

by Gerald E. Oberst Jr. A vast number of regulatory decisions have affected the satellite industry since its inception. Many of these regulations were made in the past ten years. […]

by Theresa Foley Latin America remains one of the world’s hottest satellite markets despite economic problems in two of the largest nations, Brazil and Argentina, that have put the brakes […]

by Marc Crossman and Anh Steininger In the satellite universe, 1999 would probably be considered the year of the dish. As a result of consolidation and a clearing of the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]