Focus: Broadcasting

[Satellite Today 08-22-08] Inmarsat has selected Thales Alenia Space and International Launch Services (ILS) to support an application under the European S-band Application Process (ESAP) for an award of S-band spectrum.     Inmarsat and Thales Alenia Space have announced an authorization to proceed for the development of the ‘EuropaSat’ satellite, which aims to provide mobile...

[Satellite Today 08-21-08] Dish Network Corp. is offering new programming deals for consumers affected by the upcoming digital TV transition. The company said that consumers may opt to sign up for Dish Network’s American or Latino welcome packs, featuring 20 channels for $9.99 a month.     The company said it is also selling its entry-level...

[Satellite Today 08-21-08] Crawford Communications will use Genesis Network’s fiber infrastructure as a component in the launch of a new high-definition service offering for Crawford’s client, World Fishing Network (WFN), Crawford announced Aug. 21.     The Genesis fiber network provides a terrestrial link for WFN to deliver the HD feed from its Toronto headquarters to...

[Satellite Today 08-21-08] Hawaii Pacific Teleport has put a standard A (15.5-meter) C-band antenna into service for SES New Skies, Hawaii Pacific Teleport announced Aug. 21.     The antenna will operate on the NSS-5 satellite at 183 degrees East, allowing SES News Skies     “The addition of this new antenna to our extensive antenna farm...

[Satellite Today 08-21-08] BSkyB is ramping up the number of high-definition (HD) channels available to its U.K. subscriber base, the pay-TV operator said Aug. 20.     BSkyB will launch seven new HD channels on its Sky+ HD service in October, increasing the total number of HD channels on the Sky platform to 26, compared with...

[Satellite News 08-21-08] Dish Network’s new package deal, unveiled Aug. 21, aims to acquire Latino subscribers affected by the switch to digital TV.     The switch from analog broadcasts to digital is scheduled to take place Feb. 17 and may surprise an unsuspecting Latino audience.     “A couple of months ago, I think awareness for...

[Satellite Today 08-20-08] Efficient Channel Coding (ECC) introduced a multi-stream extraction feature that enables its ECC3100 Digital Video Broadcast Satellite standard (DVB-S2) receiver chip to extract multiple data streams from a single DVB-S2 input, the company announced Aug. 20.     ECC claimed that embedding multi-stream soft-IP into the receiver FPGA would eliminate the need to...

[Satellite News 08-20-08] Alcatel-Lucent is supporting the world’s first commercial trial of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)’s new BCAST smartcard profile, a standard for mobile TV content protection, Alcatel-Lucent announced Aug. 20.     The trial, which began in early August, is being led by Alcatel-Lucent for MobileOne, a mobile telecommunications service provider in Singapore, and...

[Satellite News 08-20-08] GlobeCast signed a channel distribution deal with Verizon for the launch of 14 international channels on Verizon’s FiOS TV, GlobeCast announced Aug. 20.     World TV, a subsidiary of GlobeCast, is providing Verizon with rights, content aggregation, encoding and encryption as well as fiber delivery. Verizon delivers FiOS TV over a fiber-optic...

[Satellite Today 08-19-08] U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin and other commission staff will fan out to rural areas and other markets in the United States to raise awareness and educate consumers in the days leading up to the Feb. 17 digital television transition, the FCC announced Feb. 19.     The FCC identified...