Focus: Broadcasting

While satellite radio has blazed a trail in the United States, it is still amidst its early days in Europe, although there have been one or two significant recent developments. Ondas Media, a new player in the market, led by former SES Astra executive Celso Azevedo, aims to launch satellite radio and multimedia services in...

Worldspace Satellite Radio has licensed Certicom’s conditional access system to secure Worldspace’s satellite digital radio-based broadcast services for the European market, Certicom announced Feb, 5. Worldspace plans to roll out its European service on a country-by-country basis, beginning with Italy, which will be serviced by its AfriStar satellite. An additional satellite is expected to provide...

BSkyB’s results released this week saw strong subscriber growth once again with the operator now at over 8.4 million subscribers. However, one of the main talking points among analysts was the churn figure which has now reached nearly 12 percent, a high figure despite some mitigating circumstances. Analysts were divided in terms of its significance....

Founded in 1985, the European PressPhoto Agency (EPA) covers international news and events and provides a fast and reliable photo delivery to key customers. In May 2003, the EPA expanded its reach, transforming itself into a worldwide service covering events in Iraq as well as other parts of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the...

Nearly three decades of war have left Afghanistan’s communications infrastructure in ruins. The new government is determined to rebuild these links in order to improve the quality of life for its nearly 31 million citizens. Since Afghanistan is mostly a rural, mountainous country, satellite technologies are playing a vital role in this effort. Five years...

The Jan. 23 announcement that Jared “Jerry” Abbruzzese had resigned as chairman of the board for TerreStar Networks Inc. and chairman of TerreStar Global Ltd. coincides with reports that the FBI is investigating his relationship with a New York state legislator. Robert Brumley, president and CEO of TerreStar parent company Motient Corp., said the timing...

Motivated by rumors of a possible merger between digital satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, a new consumer-advocacy group seeking to maintain competition in the industry has been established at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. The Consumer Coalition for Competition in Satellite Radio (C3SR) is a student-run organization created...

International Datacasting Corp. (IDC) has been awarded a contract by Shin Broadband Internet of Thailand to provide software for a next-generation Internet protocol TV service in Asia, IDC announced Jan. 16. Shin Broadband Internet pushes high-definition movies over Shin Satellite’s IPStar to customers throughout Asia. IDC’s Datacast XD Content Management and Distribution software will be...

Kudelski Group has acquired a controlling stake in OpenTV, the company announced Jan. 16. Kudelski, a supplier of conditional access system to pay-TV operators, announced in October that it had reached an agreement with Liberty Media to acquire a controlling interest in OpenTV. The deal allows Kudelski to expand its product offering to include middleware...

Comtech EF Data Corp. will supply components, including modulators and redundancy switches, to DirecTV under a contract valued at about $1 million, Comtech Telecommunication Corp. announced Jan. 16. The components will be deployed to power DirecTV’s high-definition TV uplink services.