Focus: Broadcasting

[Satellite News 04-22-11] Earlier in April, DirecTV announced it was finally launching its long-awaited Home Premiere video-on-demand service providing subscribers with movies released just weeks after they premier in theaters. The service will charge consumers $29.99 to rent first-run titles for 48 hours.     The plan had been in the works for the past year...

[Satellite News 04-21-11] EchoStar and sister company Dish Network won favorable judgments April 20 in two separate U.S. district and federal court cases, the companies announced.     In one case, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez ordered Jung Kwak, founder of set-top box distributor Viewtech Inc., to pay Dish Network $214.9 million as a result...

[Satellite TODAY 04-20-11] Dish Network’s business plans for its recent acquisition of movie rental chain and online streaming video service Blockbuster Inc. will see the company take on leases for more than 500 of Blockbuster’s retail stores, according to Blockbuster’s bankruptcy-court filings dated April 19.     The U.S. satellite pay-TV operator will close at least...

Amos satellite fleet operator Spacecom has leased capacity at 4 degrees West to Bosnian broadcaster Mreza Plus TV, Spacecom announced.     Amos satellites will distribute Mreza Plus’ news and entertainment channel programming throughout Bosnia for five years. Spacecom secured the contract through its regional representative, Masterline.     “We chose Amos because of their service and...

Ericsson has unveiled its Voyager 2 scalable satellite newsgathering product to meet growing consumer demand for HD news services, the company announced.    Voyager 2, Ericsson’s fifth-generation DSNG product, is built upon a hot-swappable 1RU chassis with color input confidence monitoring and features MPEG-4 AVC 4:2:2 encoding with 10-bit precision at up to 1080p50/60 resolutions...

Advantech Wireless signed a contract with Hoje Telecom of Brazil to provide a VSAT upgrade hub, RF equipment and more than 1,000 remote terminals, Advantech announced April 13.     By 2014, Internet penetration in Brazil is expected to increase by 79 percent from 200 levels. By implementing this network, Hoje Telecom expects to leverage this...

The consensus among broadcast vendors at the 2011 NAB show was that this is a buyer’s year, driven by a multi-screen-savvy customer base and a recovering consumer economy. This year’s show also represented an enthusiastic turnaround from 2010 for satellite broadcast companies, and I must say that I was excited by the plethora of new...

Video transport solutions provider Nevion is on track to produce double-digit revenue growth in 2011, driven by an expanding interest in its portfolio of video-over-IP products. Nevion CEO Oddbjørn Bergem told Via Satellite that this expansion also would be seen in its presence with satellite customers.     With pay-TV operators and broadcasters looking at multi-faceted...

Arqiva will launch a DVB-S2, MPEG-4 shared multiplex satellite platform from its Los Angeles teleport, enabling broadcasters and cable programmers access to 100 percent of U.S. cable headends, the company announced April 11.      The platform will be available via SES World Skies’ AMC-10 satellite located at 135 degrees West and will be powered by...

RRsat Global Communications Network has implemented its new multi-carrier per-channel platform on Hispasat’s 1E satellite at 30 degrees West, RRsat announced April 7.     The platform will cater specifically to Latin America, using the downlink, uplink, space segment and playout services from RRsat’s playout center in Hawley, Pa. RRsat will broadcast content in SD, HD,...