Focus: Broadcasting

By Gerry Oberst The European Commission earlier this year adopted the goal of encouraging member states to achieve the transition from analog to digital television by 2012. The Commission seeks to help expedite the process while avoiding anti-competitive effects or favoring one platform over another. Because satellite digital broadcasting is a major success in Europe,...

by Peter J. Brown There is the triple play – voice, video and data, all on one bill – and then there is The Texas Triple Play. First of all, let me say that the mid-2005 legislative bombshell in Texas in the form of a statewide franchise for the IPTV or telco TV sector may...

By Jason Bates The more than 20 countries that make up the Middle East are thirsting for more satellite bandwidth in order to provide a wide variety of military and commercial services throughout the region. Companies that want to play in the market may have to jump through plenty of hoops to establish their businesses,...

By Peter J. Brown The use of Ka-band is gaining momentum. Throughout the next year, the broadband over satellite sector in particular will know if the overall business model is on target. At the same time, the busy HDTV market should become even busier as HD delivery via Ka-band ramps up. Boeing is advertising the...

By Julie Blondeau Samuel In 2004, the Latin American economy began to take an upward turn as its gross domestic product (GDP) increased 5.5 percent from the previous year, reaching $1.871 billion, and inflation rates dropped to 7.7 percent. Experts expect this recovery trend to continue through 2005 with a growth of 4 percent in...

By Peter J. Brown As broadcasters and direct-to-home (DTH) service providers prepare for the future, the migration from the established MPEG-2 encoding solution to a much more bandwidth- efficient solution seems almost inevitable. With demand for bandwidth-hungry, high-definition (HD) TV content growing in particular, many industry players and observers see the H.264 or MPEG-4 Part...

Banamex executives at the Mexico subsidiary of Citibank wanted to provide better services to its employees and customers. Connecting 1,300 branches across Mexico in a cost-effective manner, however, was a challenge for directors seeking a seamless connection for distributing a diverse array of information throughout the bank’s branches. Once the decision was made to incorporate...

By Gerry Oberst Toward the end of this month, the European Commission, together with the U.K. government, will sponsor a major event in Liverpool, England, on revising the Television Without Frontiers (TWF) Directive. The conference will bring together policy experts, broadcasters and national regulators to develop proposals for a revision of the basic European Union...

By Jason Bates As technology makes the world smaller, expatriate populations are finding it easier to maintain links with their home countries. Large concentrations of immigrants and first- and second-generation citizens that have developed in countries around the world are driving a market for moving so-called ethnic content from one part of the globe to...

Even though business opportunities are increasing throughout the Asia-Pacific region, regional directors and general managers of some of the leading satellite companies in Asia are moving forward cautiously with their business plans. Strategic penetration of vertical markets and offering managed solutions are the practices industry executives are implementing today in order to garner market share...