SES Astra says that the number of digital homes in the Baltic state of Lithuania grew 25 per cent last year. Anna-Karin Modigh, a senior marketing manager at SES Astra, says 30 per cent or 400,000 of the 1.34 million Lithuanian TV households are now digital. From these TV households, 31 per cent use digital […]
BSkyB’s third quarter results show strong demand in what the satellite broadcaster called “a challenging consumer environment”. The company reported total product growth of 801,000 in the quarter, with over 10.1 million customers with 51,000 net additions in the quarter. Total HD customers were 47 per cent higher than the prior year at 3.7 million, […]
Spanish pay-TV operator Digital+ has launched a 3D showcase channel on SES Astra. The new demo channel called ‘Canal+ 3D Demo’ is broadcast from Astra’s orbital position 23.5 degrees East and available free-to-air across Europe. Digital+ has launched the new 3D channel to allow installers and retailers to showcase 3D television at the point of […]
Skyware Global, the complete supplier of satcom terminal solutions, has announced the opening of a new office in the Washington DC area. The facility, located on Spring Hill Road in Tyson’s Corner (Vienna, VA) will comprise both engineering and sales teams and is designed to further support the company’s substantial client base in the Washington […]
SES executives have laid the foundation stone at a new €34 million satellite control centre at its Betzdorf, Luxembourg headquarters. The expansion plans will also see an additional business centre constructed at Betzdorf. The construction project will include a new Technical Building with associated office space to handle future needs for SES’ expanding global satellite […]
Wananchi Group, a leading local triple-play telco, is to launch a satellite-based DTH pay-TV for Kenyan viewers. ‘Zuku’ will launch in May and directly challenge South Africa’s DStv. Zuku already offers up to 91 channels of cable TV to its – mostly – Nairobi subscribers. Wananchi has as its group chairman Mark Schneider, well known […]
Early in the evening of April 22 (at 5.37pm in French Guiana) Arianespace successfully launched YahSat Y1A and Intelsat’s ‘New Dawn’ into orbit. Ariane’s Flight 201, its 43rd successful launch in a row, went flawlessly. Both satellites will undergo in-orbit testing once they have reached their correct orbits. YahSat is the United Arab Emirates’ first […]
EchoStar and sister company Dish Network on April 20 lost the latest round of its long-running litigation with DVR-technology company TiVo. The US Court of Appeals said that EchoStar continued to infringe TiVo’s patents, and found the company in contempt. TiVo’s stock price rocketed by more than 32 per cent, and most analysts agree that […]
US satellite broadband providers — Dish Network, EchoStar Technologies, ViaSat/Wildblue Communications and Hughes Network Systems – have told the Federal Communications Commission that they should be allowed to participate in the Connect America Fund. The FCC is reforming the Universal Service Fund, which has been supporting traditional phone, to subsidising broadband in unserved areas via […]
UK-based satellite operator Avanti Communications has won its legal action against rocket launch company SpaceX and will now recover its $7.56 million deposit paid against the planned launch of Hylas-1, its first satellite. The verdict, decided by the American Arbitration Association in New York, also sees Avanti get interest on its claim. SpaceX was originally […]