Focus: Broadcasting

Pay-TV operator Canalsat hopes to make a strong impact in the mobile TV market in France, as the company seeks to boost its revenues outside of its core direct-to-home (DTH) platform. Canalsat teamed up with mobile operator SFR in June 2005 to launch live TV on 3G. The service, which provides access to 17 channels...

The Middle East potentially is one of the must lucrative markets in the world for satellite TV. With television being one of the main forms of entertainment, the opportunities for pay-TV operators to carve out lucrative businesses is strong. In particular, the role of satellite in this landscape is vital. In the Middle East, three...

A joint venture between DirecTV Group and Echostar Communications Inc. held the early lead in an auction of public wireless spectrum being conducted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) but fell back after eight rounds of bidding had been completed. Wireless DBS LLC was the top bidder in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau spectrum...

Romania Cable Systems (RCS), the media company which launched direct-to-home (DTH) services in Romania in 2005, is looking to launch new DTH platforms in other countries and build an Eastern-European footprint. "We have plans to go beyond Hungary and Slovakia," Alexandru Oprea, RCS’s president, told Satellite News, in an exclusive interview. "We are looking at...

With civil space initiatives being pushed with significant momentum, many projects have passed milestones that are making some industry executives re-evaluate this sector. Recently, Boeing Co. successfully tested a key laser component of the Transformational Satellite Communications (TSAT) system. This netting system involves links from one satellite to another using a laser beam, in a...

BSkyB has seen an impressive increase in its number of subscribers. In its latest results, the operator announced it added close to 80,000 subscribers to the end of June. In fact, BSkyB’s strong performance in its consumer gains were above original analyst estimates from those who follow the direct-to-home (DTH) market. According to Patrick Wellington,...

With a population of more than 1 billion people, India has been targeted as one of the largest potential markets for satellite services, but the Indian Space Research Organization‘s (ISRO) efforts to play a key role in developing the market have been thrown into chaos after the failed launch of the Insat-4C satellite July 11,...

Satellite-TV provider BSkyB intends to be a major force in the U.K. triple-play market, unveiling broadband plans this week that are bigger, bolder and more ambitious than anyone expected. Looking to capitalize on its acquisition of terrestrial broadband provider Easynet, BSkyB revealed that it plans to spend more than 400 million British pounds ($729.4 million)...

When Canada’s Bell Expressvu and Star Choice launched their direct-to-home (DTH) services in 1997, the cable TV industry nicknamed them "The Death Stars," fearing that consumers – many who were fed up with their local cable TV carriers – would flock to DTH. Throughout the past eight years, the satellite operators have made gains and...

NDS, a conditional access and middleware vendor, believes the satellite market will present strong revenue generating opportunities for the company going forward, the company’s CEO said. NDS works with some of the biggest satellite pay-TV operators, including BSkyB, DirecTV, and most recently Germany’s Premiere. NDS is expecting the direct- to-home (DTH) players to take advantage...