The government of India must re-think its approach to satellite services and start treating DTH and cable TV suppliers as a mass market communications providers rather than a luxury sector — and adjust tax levels appropriately. This was clearest message from the CASBAA India Satellite Industry Forum this week. “With 120 million multichannel TV viewers […]

When Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down on Feb 11 few would have thought of the ramifications that would impact broadcasting in and out of Egypt. Within hours Egypt’s state-supported television began congratulating the Egyptian people “for their pure great revolution, led by the best of the Egyptian youth”. The next day MENA […]

International Launch Services (ILS), the Washington-located company that is best known for its Proton rocket launches from Kazhakstan, is complaining to the European Union about what it claims is the unfair subsidisation of arch-rival Arianespace satellite launch activities. Ariane launches its rockets from Kourou in French Guiana, and on March 17th received a €250 million […]

Telenor Satellite Broadcasting’s (TSBc) CEO Cato Halsaa joked that about the only time he formally met with his main board CEO was when he wanted “a few hundred million dollars” in funding for yet another satellite! To date, the answer has always been positive, and clearly helped by the extremely positive results Halsaa’s division has […]

Australian telco Optus has confirmed the commissioning of a brand new satellite, Optus 10, to be deployed for Australia and New Zealand – expanding the fleet to become the largest in the company’s and Australia’s history. Vicki Brady, Managing Director, Optus Wholesale and Satellite, said that satellite continued to make sense for Australia. “Optus 10 […]

Intelsat, the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, has announced that Sun TV Network has signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract for C-band capacity on the recently launched Intelsat 17 satellite (IS-17) at the 66º E orbital location. The agreement marks the second major programmer to join the line-up at Intelsat’s newly expanded video neighborhood […]

Agama Technologies, the quality assurance expert, has announced the launch of version 4.0 of the Agama DTV Monitoring Solution for cable, DTH and IPTV operators – which includes a system-wide remake of the GUI, and a foundation restructure to strongly increase the solution’s openness and scalability. The Agama DTV Monitoring Solution is a complete and […]

Intelsat, the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, has announced that Sun TV Network has signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract for C-band capacity on the recently launched  Intelsat 17 satellite (IS-17) at the 66º E orbital location. The agreement marks the second major programmer to join the line-up at Intelsat’s newly expanded video neighborhood […]

Broadcast Australia has called on the Federal Government to reconsider the costs involved in moving towns and communities onto satellite-based delivery of digital television signals. Speaking at a Senate Committee, Broadcast Australia chief executive Graeme Barclay said satellite-based services should be kept to a minimum.  “The public policy intent and impact (of the measures of […]

Viaccess is providing its scalable and flexible advanced content protection and rights management solution to NTV-PLUS as the satellite provider enters the IPTV market. NTV-PLUS, the first DTH provider and leader of pay TV market in Russia will deliver IPTV services aimed at Russian broadband operators. Partnering with Viaccess, NTV-PLUS will address both IPTV and […]