Staff Writer

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 […]

By Cynthia Boeke and Rob Fernandez Each year, Via Satellite quantifies the satellite industry. We look at how the industry is changing based on information from our own internal database, […]

By Theresa Foley Caching and multicasting weren’t even in the dictionary a few years ago. Today they are next in line to become the big revenue generators for satellite service […]

By Amanda L. Kazdoy Several new commercial launchers are creating an atmosphere of stiff competition. To create a truly competitive edge, launch services providers must furnish reliable and cost-effective vehicles. […]

PanAmSat Corp.’s [SPOT] newest satellite, the PAS 8, last week became the company’s latest bird to malfunction due to a manufacturing flaw. Space Systems/Loral [LOR] engineers are trying to identify […]

Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] Atlas IIA rocket launched the U.S. Navy’s Ultra High Frequency Follow-on F9 satellite last Wednesday (10/21) into intermediate transfer orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The […]

The tension will be high this Wednesday for Arianespace officials as they try to prove their next-generation Ariane 5 rocket is ready to become a workhorse in the France-based organization’s […]

EchoStar Signs Pact To Purchase Media4, Inks OpenTV Deal For Interactive Services EchoStar Communications Corp. [DISH] took two key steps last week to further its involvement in two major growth […]

As pioneer Little low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite operator Orbcomm Global L.P. continues to develop its data messaging system, the Dulles, Va.-based company has decided to make some big changes at the […]

ADC Telecommunications Inc. [ADCT] is angling to exploit new business opportunities in Europe through the formation of a U.K.-based subsidiary that will concentrate its efforts on providing microcellular systems solutions […]

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Hughes Space and Communications International Inc. [GMH] has signed a contract to build a geostationary mobile satellite system based in the United Arab Emirates. Hughes was selected late last month […]