Focus: Broadcasting

[Satellite News 08-18-08] Foxtel has seen a strong early take-up of high-definition (HD) services in Australia, attracting nearly 40,000 HD subscribers since launching the service in June.     Patrick Delany, executive director of sales and product development for Foxtel, said these early results have been encouraging and with the costs for HD-ready TV sets plummeting,...

[Satellite Today 08-18-08] Foxtel, the Australian pay-TV operator, is encouraged by the early results from its high-definition (HD) offering, and with the costs for HD-ready TV sets plummeting, Foxtel chose the right time to launch HD services in Australia. “We have been watching the price of large HD-ready panels plummet,” Patrick Delany, executive director of...

[Satellite Today 08-18-08] ICO Global Communications has reached an agreement with MTV Networks to add Nickelodeon and Comedy Central to the alpha trials of ICO’s mobile interactive media (mim) service, ICO announced Aug. 18.     ICO mim, an interactive mobile video, navigation and emergency assistance service powered by the ICO G1 satellite, which launched in...

[Satellite Today 08-13-08] Australia’s Foxtel reported revenues of 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.5 billion) in the year that closed June 30, a 17 percent increase compared to the same stage a year ago, the satellite pay-TV operator announced Aug. 13.     At the end of June, Foxtel had 1.5 million direct and wholesale subscribers, and...

[Satellite Today 08-13-08] An overhead crane operated by Measat‘s launch service provider accidentally damaged the Measat 3a satellite while at the Baikonur, Kazakhstan launch site, Orbital Sciences announced.     The company said that a team of Measat and Orbital engineers are assessing the extent of the damage to determine the next course of action, which...

[Satellite Today 08-13-08] Intelsat reported record revenues of $584.9 million in the 2008 second quarter but recorded a loss of $82 million, the company announced Aug. 13. Intelsat reported revenues of $543.2 million and a loss of $31.7 million in the 2007 second quarter.     Intelsat acquired parent company Intelsat Holdings Ltd., an entity controlled...

[Satellite Today 08-12-08] Home2US has added three premium channels produced by Albania’s Top Channel to the Home2US direct-to-home lineup, the company announced Aug. 13.     As part of the agreement with Top Channel, Home2US is providing a fully-managed U.S. distribution solution, including encryption, call center support, billing, equipment provisioning, warehousing and installation.     “The addition...

[Satellite Today 08-12-08] C-Com Satellite Systems Inc. received  its iNetVu mobile satellite antenna systems from an Asian television, C-Com announced Aug. 12.     The station plans to use the antennas for satellite newsgathering, and the initial order is valued at $650,000.     “The market for satellite newsgathering antenna systems using high performance cost-effective antennas such...

[Satellite Today 08-12-08] Globalstar completed the second quarter with more than 315,000 subscribers, an increase of about 23,000 since the end of March, the company announced Aug. 11.     Total revenue in the second quarter of 2008 was $23 million, a slight decrease from $25.8 million during the same period in 2007. Globalstar blamed the...

[Satellite Today 08-12-08] DataPath has introduced  easy-to-deploy communications on-the-move (COTM) solution mobile network-centric warfare and first responder capabilities, the company announced Aug. 12.     The MobiLink system incorporates standard communications electronics in a compact package that enables integrated UHF/VHF land mobile radio and satellite COTM. A hub vehicle equipped with MobiLink supports high-bandwidth capability to...