Focus: Broadcasting

[09-14-07 – Satellite Today] Telespazio, the Italian satellite operator, has won a key military contract in Italy, the company said Sept. 13. The operator has signed a 118 million euros ($163.96 million) contract with the Italian Defense Ministry (Teledife) for the launch and operation of the Sicral 1B satellite. Telespazio will finance part of the...

[09-14-07 – Satellite Today]  SES Astra has signed a capacity deal with one of Germany’s top channel providers, the company announced Sept. 14. The extra capacity will enable the German television channel, Tele 5 to further improve and optimise the picture quality in standard definition transmissions. The agreement on additional capacity is effective immediately. Ludwig...

[Satellite Today – 09-13-07] Canalsat, the French direct-to-home operator with more than five million subscribers, said Sept. 12, that it had signed a new deal with Philips for advanced High-Definition (HD) TV set-top boxes. Under the terms of the deal, Canalsat will deploy the latest Philips dual HD digital satellite receivers to enable its subscribers...

[Satellite News – 9-13-07] It is not every day a major European pay-TV operator enters into a new market with a population of close to 50 million people, but that is what happened this week when the Modern Times Group (MTG) announced it was going to launch a digital premium Direct-To-Home (DTH) satellite TV operator...

[09/12/07 – Satellite Today]  Entavio will be broadcasting German handball, basketball and volleyball league games thanks to an agreement with Sportdigital.tv, the company announced Sept. 12. Entavio is a fully owned affiliate of SES Astra. The technical and service platform was launched earlier this month.  Since it does not acquire programs, the platform is open...

[09-11-07 – Satellite Today] SES Astra is bringing its interactive TV service Blucom to the Middle East, the company announced September 11. SES has signed a contract with MBC, a free-to-air multi-channel media group in the Middle East and North Africa region, which will use Blucom for voting, greeting, downloading and other enhanced TV-applications for...

[09-11-07 – Satellite Today]  DirecTV and Thomson are launching a satellite television service for multi-family dwellings like apartment complexes, the company announced Sept. 11. The DirecTV MFH3 (Multi-Family Housing version 3) distribution system is desigend to solve satellite distribution issues in dense living spaces such as apartment complexes, condominiums and laster planned communities, and enables...

[09-11-07 – Satellite Today]  Globecast and Arabsat will be extending their partnership until 2014, the companies announced Sept. 11. The two companies have expanded the worldwide distribution of the Arabsat/ASBU digital bouquet of Arabic language channels to five continents and include Al Jazeera and Qatar TV. As of today, the available services cover the following...

[09-10-07 – Satellite Today]  The Comcast Media Center’s Hits Quantum service has added six more HDTV channels to its lineup, the company announced Sept. 10. The service, which is aboard SES Americom’s HD-Prime satellite, AMC-18, has already launched on three cable systems, and 12 more have signed up for the service. Hits Quantum offers more...

[09-10-07 – Satellite Today] DirecTV will be using Tandberg Television’s workflow automation solutions to enable its new multi-platform on-demand service, the company announced Sept. 10. The Tandberg WatchPoint Workflow System supports service providers’ and programmers’ unique workflow processes by integrating with multiple in-house, third-party and other Tandberg Television systems for content management and distribution. WatchPoint...