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| To Launch (or Not) |
Arianespace is on track for its seventh Ariane 5 launch in 2009. The launch, of a French military reconnaissance satellite, is scheduled for Dec. 9. Meanwhile Intelsat-14 isn’t going anywhere ... not yet, anyway. The satellite, which was originally scheduled for launch last Saturday, has been hobbled by an electrical problem with the Atlas V rocket. No news yet on when the bird, designed to replace the aging Intelsat 1R, will fly.•
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| 18 Nov 2009 - 07:30 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Consumers Spending More on Media |
We’re not out of the woods (not hardly) but at least consumers are shelling out more for media. According to research NPD, Americans are now spending around $115 per month per household on subscription media services. That’s up 7% from a year ago.
The exception to this rule is (no surprise here) print media which are down from last year. But on the upside are television, DVRs, satellite radio, subscription music, mobile phone data, internet access, online gaming plus Netflix and and the like.•
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| 18 Nov 2009 - 07:29 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Conferencing by Satellite: A New Hot Spot? |
With the economy still sputtering, virtual meetings have become an increasingly big business. From large companies seeking to limit travel costs to hotels seeing to boost revenues, live, 2-way broadcasts from multiple locations are fast growing beyond the “novelty” stage. Now add another twist to the story with world-class broadcast satellite providing full virtual meeting capabilities from a restaurant chain.
A collaboration between The Capital Grille restaurant chain and ConneXion360 has launched virtual meeting capabilities connecting private dining rooms in all 40 Capital Grille locations. Said Capital Grille president John Martin, "With satellite broadcasting technology in all of our restaurants, we invite our guests to hold meetings or presentations in multiple cities at once, while enjoying our exceptional service, award-winning food and wine, and the comfortable surroundings of our private dining rooms."
No word on what the meetings might cost but, hey, it’s got to beat a bunch of plane and hotel expenses.
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| 17 Nov 2009 - 07:17 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Hughes Says “Hey!” On National Broadband |
Having recently watched a five-hour long presentation to the FCC on broadband in which satellite was mentioned only three times (once to say how one participant DIDN'T use it), Hughes Network Systems is calling "hey!" on the national broadband issue. Not only do we have it right now, they note, but in the near future we will offer a new world of fiber-like satellite delivery.
To prove their point, the Hughes folks have set up a sat broadband demo at DC’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, located conveniently close to the FCC. The demo, using capacity from Hughes' Spaceway 3, sets up what SVP of regulatory affairs Steve Doiron describes as, "A future consumer satellite home, which demonstrates what we believe will be typical applications two or three years after we launch Jupiter (Hughes' new mega-satellite) in 2012." Those applications including streaming HD (using a Netflix box purchased at Sam's Club), video conferencing at 1 Mbps, VoIP (via a Cisco IP phone), home browsing with multiple websites and the like.
At 100 Mbps, the Jupiter satellite will offer 10 times the capacity of Spaceway 3 and Doiron says, could serve "several million new customers." The open house demonstration runs through today (Nov. 17).•
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| 17 Nov 2009 - 07:16 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Pure Speculation |
'Tis the season of mammoth mergers with the big guys flinging their money hither and yon in the quest to become even bigger. In the spirit of such things ... and in the light of the ailing Motorola's need to somehow, anyhow, stop its long slide ... I have a suggestion:
Being as Motorola is apparently shopping its home and networks mobility division ...
Being as Charlie Ergen's EchoStar is determinedly seeking an entrance to the cable set-top-box world for its Sling Technology ...
Being that the cable guys aren't exactly welcoming EchoStar with open arms ...
Why doesn't Charlie buy Motorola's STB division?
Of course, Charlie wouldn't pay anything close to the $4.5 billion that the Wall Street Journal says Motorola wants for the business. But it's pretty certain that no one else will either. And seeing as Motorola's dismal results of late come (at least in part) from its rather large techno-gap, Charlie's SlingBox might be exactly what's needed.
Besides, Charlie likes to gamble ... and Charlie likes a challenge ... and Charlie certainly isn't adverse to bulling his way into businesses, so, hey, why not?
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| 16 Nov 2009 - 08:31 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Kudelski Gets OpenTV; BSkyB Gets Targeted; Flo TVs at Retail |
• The Kudelski Group has successfully completed its tender offer to acquire OpenTV Corp’s Class A shares. The company acquired 60% of the shares it didn’t already own when the offer expired on November 12. Kudelski opened another offer to gain the remaining shares. That offer will expire on November 20 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
• BSkyB plans to introduce targeted advertising on its broadband-based TV outlet Sky Player sometime after the first of the year. Using AdSmart technology, Sky will focus on such factors as postal codes or TV package selection, in order to deliver the targeted ads. Customers may opt out of the system and the ads will appear only on on demand content.
• Consumers can now purchase handheld FLO TV Personal TVs at local retail stores such as Best Buy and Radio Shack as well as online on Amazon.com. As part of the launch, FLO TV’s first six months of subscription service will be bundled into the overall retail price of $249.99.
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| 16 Nov 2009 - 08:27 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Boeing to Dump Sea Launch? |
In yet another blow to the troubled launch company, Boeing is apparently preparing to dump its 40% stake in Sea Launch. Speaking to the LA Times, Sea Launch president Kjell Karlsen said, "I would like to see Boeing being part of the new Sea Launch, but it's more likely they will work in a supplier capacity and not in an ownership role."
Having never quite recovered from a Jan. 2007 rocket explosion, Sea Launch is currently reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company filed for protection in June after losing an arbitration battle with Hughes Network Systems.
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| 16 Nov 2009 - 08:27 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| DIRECTV CEO, Meeting & More |
• That long awaited DIRECTV CEO might be on the horizon. Speaking at the Media and Money Conference in New York, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said an announcement should be coming in the next few weeks. But don't expect Maffei's name in the press release. Said he, "I have a job I like, and I'm probably going to stick with it."
• Speaking of Liberty, the company will hold a special stockholder meeting to discuss the DIRECTV split-off on November 19, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. ET. For more information visit http://www.mediafinance.org/index.aspx?PageID=454br>• Jaya TV, a Tamil channel from India, will be available exclusively to DISH Network subs in the US. The channel will be aired on 792 and carry such shows as: “Jack Pot,” “Makkal Arangam” and “Thaka Thimi Tha.”
• RRsat reported strong numbers for its 3Q09 report with a 20% revenue growth totaling $24.1 million. Net income was $2.9 million; adjusted net income was $3.8 million. The company also announced it acquired 18 new contracts in the quarter.
• Austrian broadcaster kaernten.tv will add satellite distribution to its streaming internet presence. Additionally, RTV Salzburg will begin broadcasting from the Astra satellite next month.•
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| 15 Nov 2009 - 08:01 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Welcome Back, Eddy |
Well, sort of .... Eddy Hartenstein, the guy who essentially created DIRECTV and ran it until its late 2003 take-over by News Corp, is stepping up his visibility in the satellite industry. This time, he's taking on the troubled waters of SIRIUS XM as non-executive chairman, replacing Gary Parsons. Prior to the satellite radio merger, Hartenstein was board member of XM; he became a director of SIRIUS XM in the summer of 2008.
Never one to decline a challenge, Hartenstein is currently Publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times. Fortunately, SIRIUS XM is in slightly better shape than the newspaper industry. The company lost $149.2 million, or 4 cents a share, on revenue of $618.7 million in the latest quarter but it also added 102,295 subscribers. That's first uptick in sat radio subs since last December. Earlier this year Liberty Media took a 40% stake in the company, saving it from a possible bankruptcy filing.•
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| 14 Nov 2009 - 06:42 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Discovery Adds Science Site |
Discovery Communications has launched a new web site dedicated to science and technology news. This site comes in response to mainstream media outlets reducing their science and technology coverage and employs 25 journalists located around the world.•
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| 11 Nov 2009 - 06:55 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Anik F1 Lives; DISH Wants "Everywhere"; SIRIUS Plans Launch & More |
• Telesat of Canada says its Anik F1 satellite will continue operating until 2016, its contracted retirement date, despite numerous legal issues with Boeing and insurance underwriters. This announcement comes after the company reported an increase in revenue and operating profit for the 3Q09.
• You want "TV Everywhere?" DISH says its already got that via its remote DVR features via Sling Media. And just to rub that in, DISH has filed for trademark protection on the “TV Everywhere” moniker.
• International Launch Services and SIRIUS XM Radio are partnering together to launch the XM-5 satellite in 2010. This will be the 5th ILS Proton launch for the SIRIUS radio fleet. The 6,000 satellite will be located at 85 degrees West.
• C-COM Satellite Systems has penned a deal with Telspazio Argentina. Leslie Klein, President and CEO of C-COM Satellite Systems Inc noted, “We are pleased to have been selected by Telespazio to be their mobile satellite antenna supplier and look forward to working with them to deliver iNetVu broadband solutions to their extensive customer base in South America as well as in other parts of the world.”
• MYtv has selected Intelsat for a multi-year capacity contract to deliver its DTH platform to subs throughout the Ukraine. MYtv’s capacity will be over the Thor 6 satellite and will offers its subs more than 80 channels of programming.
• Inmarsat showed an 8.7% increase in revenue for 3Q09, with revenues totaling $176.7 million. The company’s EBITDA increased 18.4% to $133 million and its profits after tax totaled $50.2 million.•
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| 11 Nov 2009 - 06:54 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Intelsat Transponder Services Deliver Revenue Increase in Third Quarter |
[Satellite TODAY 11-10-09] Intelsat saw its 2009 third quarter revenues increase $19.4 million to $617.9 million, up from $598.5 million in 2008, the operator announced in its financial results, released Nov. 9.
Intelsat transponder service revenues increased $25.7 million, due primarily to a $19.4 million increase in revenue from network services customers and renewals in the Latin American, Caribbean, European, African and Middle East regions. The company’s managed services business increased its revenues $3.9 million due to business and service expansion in trunking, private line and GXS broadband solutions in Africa and the Middle East. Intelsat General reported a $13.1 million increase in revenues resulting from new services and strong renewals sold primarily to North American customers.
The company saw its broadcast channel and mobile satellite service revenues decrease $3.1 million and $7.1 million, respectively, due to continued declines from the migration of point-to-point satellite traffic to transoceanic fiber optic cables and decreased sales of professional and technical services performed for satellite operators and third-party usage-based mobile services. The company said it expects these trends to continue.
Intelsat’s loss on derivative financial instruments increased by $2.2 million in the third quarter to $38.8 million compared to 2008. The company’s overall net loss for the quarter was $94.3 million, bringing its 2009 net loss total to $684.7 for the first three quarters.
“Our third quarter financial performance reflects continuing solid demand for services across our global satellite fleet and ground network as well as the success of our capacity management program. By executing on this strategic objective, we have boosted our capacity utilization to 85 percent and improved our returns on our network investments. We will opportunistically supplement our capacity with modest investments in order to support customer growth and to increase the resilience of our fleet,” Intelsat CEO Dave McGlade said in a statement.
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| 10 Nov 2009 - 07:25 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| EchoStar Makes European IPTV Push With Latens Technology Integration |
EchoStar Europe has integrated a card-less conditional access and middleware solution from Latens with its hybrid HDX-600 platform to create a solution for IPTV and broadband TV operators, EchoStar Europe announced Nov. 9.
Latens will provide EchoStar with its ECO middleware platform solution equipped with pre-integrated conditional access software. EchoStar’s HDX-600 supports AVC to reduce bandwidth requirements for video-based services. The integrated solution aims to deliver an upgraded HDX-600 platform for delivering secure, interactive IP-based television services and applications including video-on-demand.
EchoStar Europe hinted that the Latens integration is the first of a series of planned IP-centered integrations. “In order to support our strategy in Europe, it is imperative that we partner with a number of the industry’s leading conditional access and middleware solutions. This is one of our first planned integrations in the IP space and provides a middleware and [conditional access] platform for adaptation and deployment by IPTV and hybrid IPTV operators,” EchoStar spokesman Rick Smith said in a statement.
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| 9 Nov 2009 - 19:12 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| TDG Offers Up His Son As The Guilty Party |
TDG tries to pass the buck in court...
WARD also testified that he and his son, William, operate a legal E-Bay business from that address with an associated PayPal account. See Franks Decl. (Doc. 59-2) Ward Depo., pp. 20-22; p. 29, Lines 4-22. The E-Bay and PayPal account had an e-mail address of "DSSguy@gmail.com" which was accessible to William.
A reasonable person might conclude that any of those persons had access to WARD’S computers and therefore his e-mail addresses and online personas.
A reasonable person could infer that of the people living with WARD, William certainly had access to WARD’S computers, his e-mail addresses and E-Bay account and thus, could have sent the offending piracy software in messages and posted on the Internet as well as selling DISH Network-related products using the E-Bay account and WARD’S monikers.
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| 9 Nov 2009 - 11:46 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Sky Italia Soccer Broadcast Rights Blocked |
Will there be yet another round in the Murdoch vs Berlusconi match? A Milan appeals court blocked the awarding of broadcast rights for football (soccer) matches the next two seasons to Sky Italia, which is a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Italy's football association, Lega Calcio, had awarded six exclusive packages of broadcast rights to Serie A's matches called "A Platinum Live" for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons in July. On Wednesday Lega Calcio released a statement saying that it was surprised by the Corte d'Appello di Milano ruling and has plans to appeal. The award of the package is believed to have netted the league some $1.709 billion.
In other Sky Italia news, it has a reported $37 million decrease in revenues, as elevated programming costs brought the operating income to only $128 million. Subscriber numbers remained stable for the second consecutive quarter of this year at 4.8 million.
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| 6 Nov 2009 - 09:27 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Eutelsat Revenue Growth; NSR Tops 114mil DTH Subs; Globalstar completes construction; HBP Asia deal with Telesat |
Eutelsat’s revenues grew by more than 11.6%, totaling €226.7 million for the third quarter. The operator now broadcasts over 3,000 channels inlcuding over 100 in HD throughout Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
NSR reports that nearly 100 Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms were broadcasting over 13,000 TV channels to more than 114 million subs at the end of 2008, bringing an estimated $65 billion in revenues for that sector. Additionally, subscribers have increasing access to HD channels, DVRs and VOD services.
Globalstar Inc has completed construction of the new gateway ground station in Nigeria. The gateway will provide satellite coverage to Nigeria, parts of Western and Central Africa and the coastal Atlantic and Gulf of Guinea region.
HBO Asia has penned a multi-year deal with Telesat which allows HBO Asia to distribute HDTV to Telesat's customers via Telstar 18.
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| 6 Nov 2009 - 09:21 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Revenues up for DirecTV |
DIRECTV came out of the third quarter like a lion on the cash flow front, with free cash flow up by 94% to a new record of $643 million. Revenue growth was also firm and on that always-critical subscriber gain index DIRECTV made a net increase of 136,000 in the U.S. and 162,000 in its Latin American division.
Interim CEO Larry Hunter attributed the U.S. growth primarily to the marketing partnership with AT&T plus record breaking demand for HD and DVR services. Hunter additionally accorded that two-thirds of all new subs in the quarter signed up for one or both of those services.
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| 6 Nov 2009 - 09:14 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| TV to GPS |
Over-the-Top TV for $30/month?
That's Apple's (return, but better) pitch to networks ... with some 65 million iTunes users, this represents the first mass market attempt to replicate a cable-like subscription service to mainstream network programming. No bites yet; but the betting is Disney will at least listen closely to its largest shareholder and "experiment."• - PSM
Mixed Results for DISH vs TiVo
The U.S. Court of Appeals gave DISH and EchoStar a bit of potential wiggle room on Monday as one judge said that some parts of the two companies’ DVRs did not infringe on TiVO patents. However, the three judge panel also questioned whether EchoStar and DISH waited too long to challenge a trial judge’s order to disable the set-top box functionality in their set-top boxes. The panel did not say when it will rule in the case.•
GPS: Headaches for Garmin
Google’s plans to enter the navigation race is casting a long, long shadow over the existing GPS market. The most recent victim is Garmin as industry analysts have begun to throw cold water over what was expected to be a strong third quarter. Noted Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner, "We have tended to think that mobile navigation applications would only gradually nibble away at the addressable market for PNDs, but the Google product and price-point suggests the nibble could be more like a gulp."•
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| 3 Nov 2009 - 08:37 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| SkyLog: SBCA SkyFORUM; KVH, Sirius Add Products; Iridium Board |
• SBCA will be hosting its SkyFORUM on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET. The conference is free of charge and all participants need is a computer and a broadband connection. Two of the Keynote speakers include: Blair Levin, Executive Director - Broadband Initiative, FCC, as well as Tony Goncalves, Vice President of Sales, DIRECTV. For more information visit www.skyforumsbca.com.
• KVH Industries unveiled its new TracVision HD7 satellite system at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show and will be offering interested customers discounts, cash back and free accessories for those who purchase the TracVision HD7, other TracVision satellite TV systems or a TracPhone satellite communications system through the end of 2009.
• SIRIUS XM Radio unveiled its XM SkyDock, the first satellite radio which can be controlled by an iPod or iPhone. Subs can gain access to the "Best of SIRIUS" programming package anywhere they drive while the dock charges the iPod touch or iPhone devices while listening to satellite radio.
• Iridium Communications Inc. has named a new member to its Board of Directors. Peter M. Dawkins, founder of ShiningStar Capital LCC and a retired Brigadier General, will be the tenth member on Iridium’s board. Prior to working for his current firm, Gen. Dawkins was vice chairman of global wealth management for Citigroup.•
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| 3 Nov 2009 - 08:34 by soullezz |
Industry News
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| Crystal Ball on DISH, DIRECTV |
It’s crystal ball season on Wall Street as analysts cast their best bets on upcoming third quarter results. Monday’s round of forecasts looked relatively positive for the satellite sector as Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen bumped her rating on DISH to Neutral from Underperform. Reif Cohen cited signs that the business is beginning to stabilize plus churn improvement for her boost to DISH. DISH reports its results on Monday, Nov. 9.
Meanwhile Kaufman Bros. reiterated its Buy on DIRECTV on expectations of solid quarterly results. DIRECTV reports this Thursday.•
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| 3 Nov 2009 - 08:30 by soullezz |
Industry News
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