* Satellite Media Services (SMS) is now offering Internet access speeds of up to 155Mbps over satellite. SMS is using IP over SONET rather than ATM in order to reduce latency and overhead problems. The company said it had invested pounds5.5 million in the upgrade and that it planned to increase access speeds to 622Mbps by July. The services is aimed primarily at large ISPs in developing markets such as the Middle East and Asia.

* BSkyB’s acquisition of 24 per cent of KirchPayTV, operator of the Premiere World pay-TV platform, is understood to be awaiting the imminent approval of the European Union competition commissioner. It is expected that the main proviso being that the two companies do not enter into joint acquisitions on sports or movie rights.

* Last year’s solar-panel delamination anomalies cost Matra Marconi Space Euro 80 million, according to new joint-parent company Aerospatiale. The losses cut Aerospatiale’s profits from its space division in half. Profits within the space division were reduced to 2.3 per cent of sales (income was Euro 1.48 billion), down from a 6 per cent margin in 1998. Operating profit was Euro 34 million. Part of the losses also cover the modifications for the cancelled New Skies Satellite NSS-6 craft. There could be further costs associated with the delamination problem. At the recent Aerospatiale results announcement, CFO Francois Auque revealed that future payments due to the company from customers with satellites in orbit might be withheld. However, while the full Euro 80 million had been accepted as the full cost of the disaster, Matra says it will be asking its solar panel component sub-contractors to reimburse the company for the defective supplies.

* Rupert Murdoch was in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, India, last week fleshing out his satellite plans. He said he planned to invest several hundreds of millions of dollars in India in the next couple of years and hinted that he would launch TV channels in the six main Indian languages. He told reporters that apart from entertainment, he intended to make forays into multimedia also. Noting that Star TV had made a great deal of investment in Hindi and English, he said we would expect similar services in six main Indian languages.

* FTSE International included SES in its World Index Series from Monday March 20. SES will be a member of the Belgium/Luxembourg country group, with a weighting of 4.28 per cent in this group. SES is ranked number 237 by market capitalisation, and SES will also be the first Luxembourg constituent of the FTSE Eurotop 300 Index where it will be included in the cable and satellite sub-sector.

* BT Broadcast Services has won the distribution contract for four Italian channels: music channel Magic, Sicilia International, Sardengna Uno and Napoli International.

* Italian insurance company Mediolanum SPA is planning to use satellite TV to expand in to other European markets. The company, whose major shareholder is Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest, has announced plans to expand into Spain, and as a first step plans to launch a satellite TV channel. The goal is to clone the Mediolanum model outside of Italy, by using a business TV channel for continuous contact with the sales network. Currently, the company produces four weekly programmes devoted to company news and in-depth analysis of financial and economic news, which are transmitted on a transponder subleased from Telepiu. However, Mediolanum has now reached an agreement with Eutelsat for the lease of transponder space on the Hot Bird satellites for a pan-European channel. The new channel will include the weekly company news updates, but will also aim to attract potential new clients.

* Adult X, also known has Adult+, has been proscribed by the UK television regulator. “The output consists almost entirely of unacceptable pornography,” according to the ITC. The rules mean that it is now a criminal offence for UK-based companies or individuals to sell cards, supply programming material, carry advertising or supply or offer decoder boxes.