Staff Writer

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

Pace Micro Technology reported slightly reduced turnover of Pounds 182.8 million for the year ended 29 May 1999 (compared with Pounds 184 million for 1998). Revenues from sales of digital […]

Media company CLT-UFA doesn’t want to sell its shares in German general interest channel Vox to Rupert Murdoch. A CLT-UFA spokeswomen said that the company was unfazed by News Corp’s […]

In the first Italian crackdown on digital TV piracy, police from Genoa have broken up an illegal ring that sold as many as 500,000 cloned digital decoders and smart cards […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

by Katie McConnell There was a time when some telecommunications analysts proposed that VSATs were an interim product that would eventually be replaced by terrestrial solutions like coaxial cables and […]

by Gerald E. Oberst Jr. Earlier this year, the satellite industry in Europe submitted extensive comments to the European Commission on spectrum resources. These comments, by the Regulatory Working Group […]

by Marc Crossman A new era for all multichannel programs, cable and DBS operators alike, came to life when the U.S. Senate passed a satellite bill in late May that […]