Focus: Broadcasting

[Via Satellite 1-2-2014] The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) has appointed Richard Chernock as the Chairman of the ATSC’s Technology Group 3 (TG3), the standards development group working on the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard. Chernock succeeds James Kutzner of PBS, who has announced his retirement effective Feb. 1. Chernock is the chief science officer...

[Via Satellite 12-30-13] MBC Bollywood, the latest channel in MBC Group’s bouquet of 14 channels, has been added to Arabsat’s Badr 4 satellite. The channel is known for providing Indian movies and TV series that are dubbed and translated into Arabic. MBC Bollywood’s main themed nights include: premier movie night, star of the month, new...

[Via Satellite 12-26-13] Azerspace 1, which entered commercial service in March, has gathered $10 million in revenues for Azerbaijan. Located at 46 degrees east longitude, the satellite carries 36 active transponders in Ku-band and C-band. The country’s satellite operator has sold more than 50 percent of Azerspace 1’s capacity. Currently TV channels are broadcast to...

[Via Satellite 12-23-13] SES has selected Disney’s new Disney Channel HD to become the 16th channel on its roster for the German HD+ platform. The channel is to broadcast on the Astra 2C satellite at 19.2 degrees east, with a frequency of 10.80275 GHz. The new Disney Channel is focused on children and families during...

[Via Satellite 12-20-13] SES has signed an agreement with RAI — Italian Radio and Television — to use the Astra 19.2 degrees east orbital position for the transmission of an bouquet consisting of four HDTV channels. “SES satellites at 19.2 degrees east transmit over 850 TV channels, of which more than 150 are in HD,”...

[Via Satellite 12-20-13] Thailand’s IPMTV has decided to lease additional capacity and extend its current capacity contract beyond 10 years on SES’ recently launched SES 8 satellite. The broadcaster will also migrate from SES’ NSS 6 satellite to the SES 8, which was successfully launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Dec. 3, 2013....

[Via Satellite 12-19-13] Phoenix TV has signed a contract for one C-band transponder on AsiaSat’s AsiaSat 3S satellite to deliver up to 3 High Definition (HD) and 3 Standard Definition (SD) television channels starting on Jan. 1, 2014. New channels will include Phoenix TV’s flagship channel Phoenix Chinese, information and finance news channel Phoenix Infonews,...

[Via Satellite 12-16-13] Space Systems/Loral (SSL) and AsiaSat signed a construction agreement for AsiaSat 9, the replacement satellite for AsiaSat 4. The new satellite will be used for television broadcast, private networks and broadband services across the Asia Pacific. Designed to operate in C-, Ku-, and Ka-band, AsiaSat 9 will be located at 122 degrees...

[Via Satellite 12-12-13] ISOL, a satellite service provider in Lebanon, has selected Ateme’s Kyrion CM5000 for its Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) operations. ISOL, stationed in Beirut, operates its own fleet of NSNG vehicles and fly-aways. Its clients include domestic and international news broadcasters such as Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabic, CNN, Al Hourra and...

[Via Satellite 12-10-13] Tricolor TV is a DTH success story in Russia. With more than 13 million subscribers, it has become one of the leading pay-TV operators in the world. The company also has an increasingly strong demand for satellite capacity, which makes it an aggressive buyer. Tricolor TV currently uses 22 transponders in total:...