The HGS-1 communications satellite has arrived in geosyn-chronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean, successfully completing an historic mission that sent it around the moon twice to reposition it into a useful orbit.
HGS-1 was launched on Christ-mas Day. But due to a malfunctioning launch vehicle, it was left in an unusable, highly elliptical orbit. Insurers declared it a total loss for its original purposes, which was for television services in Asia.
Hughes Global Services (HGS) obtained title in April to the fully functional satellite, and devised a novel mission to salvage the satellite, using lunar gravity to improve the resulting orbit once the satellite returned to Earth. That flyby, in mid-May, was the first commercial mission to the moon. Encouraged by the precision of that mission, Hughes performed a second lunar rendezvous this month to further improve the orbit. HGS-1 will be "parked" in a dormant state over the Pacific until Hughes finds customers for it.
When HGS obtained title to the satellite, it agreed to try to find revenue-producing uses for the satellite
and to share profits with insurers.
Orbital Sciences shipped eight ORBCOMM communications satel-lites to the company's launch facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where the process of integrating the satellites with a Pegasus' rocket has now begun in preparation for a planned mid-July launch.
Orbital is building and launching 36 low-orbit satellites for its ORBCOMM Global affiliate, which is developing the world's first "Little LEO" data communications constel-lation that will allow businesses and individuals to send and receive short messages anywhere on Earth.
The upcoming Pegasus launch will bring the total number of in-orbit satellites to 20.
Thomson Multimedia has signed a contract with Via Digital to supply 400,000 digital satellite decoders to the Spanish digital service during the next three years.
The decoders conform to European standards for digital video broadcasting and will be developed in Thomson's R&D center in Rennes, France. They will be manufactured in France and Mexico.
The first delivery of the Thomson decoders to Via Digital will begin at the end of this year.
PanAmSat may incur a $35 million to $85 million shortfall in the company's insurance coverage to build and launch a replacement for the Galaxy IV satellite that spun out of control last week, according to press reports.
Satellite companies typically are not covered for the full amount of an in-orbit loss, including
PanAmSat. The disabled bird was insured for an in-orbit loss of $165 million, but the cost of building,
launching and insuring a replacement ranges between $200 million to $250 million.
An Argentine court, responding to complaints from the nation's main satellite providers, ordered a temp-orary ban on the entry and advance publicity for Hughes-backed Galaxy Latin America and its DirecTV service.
The entry ban won't have an immediate impact on Galaxy, since it is still waiting for the U.S. government and Argentina to sign a satellite reciprocity deal. The agreement, expected to be signed within the next few weeks, is needed before Galaxy's DirecTV service can start delivering service to Argentine homes. The court's decision resulted from a suit filed by Argentina's TDH, a satellite operator controlled by the Vila Group. Both TDH and NahuelSat, another Argentine satel-lite operator, have said a reciprocity deal would only benefit companies operating from the United States.
Galaxy's DirecTV and News Corp.-backed Sky would have direct access to the lucrative Argentine pay
TV market once a reciprocity deal is signed.
CD Radio will purchase a fourth satellite from Loral Space and Communications to service its national satellite-to-car radio system set to launch in first quarter 1999.
With a fourth satellite, CD Radio will double its broadcast capacity to 100 channels. "In terms of incremental value delivered to customers, the step-up from 50 channels to 100 channels is analogous to the difference between a regular bookstore and a Barnes and Noble superstore," said David Margolese, CD Radio chairman and chief executive.
Through the agreement, Loral will replace Arianespace as CD Radio's launch service provider. Loral
will deliver three FS-1300 satellites in-orbit with one ground spare.
Comtech Communications received a contract valued at about $500,000 to use its satellite communications frequency converters in the expansion of the Hughes DirectTV DBS service.
Comtech said it expects the frequency converters, which will uplink programming from DirectTV
broadcast centers to various satellites, to be delivered by Aug. 15. DirectTV plans to use multiple Ku-Band
transponders to further expand its programming lineup with special-interest services to underserved
consumer segments.
British Sky Broadcasting will provide its most loyal subscribers the first chance to sign up for its digital offering this month as part of a limited launch.
The company had initially targeted late spring for the start-up, but later moved its "soft launch" to June amid doubts about the availability of the set-top decoding boxes that viewers will need to receive digital channels. The service will provide 200 channels of programming.
A BSkyB spokesman said the company would offer the service this month to subscribers who had been with Sky for the longest, while other customers would be targeted later this summer, followed by non- subscribers in the autumn.
"Effectively what we're saying is that the main event is the autumn, as we've always said," the spokesman said. "Before that, we'll start marketing to existing subscribers so that we can gauge reactions and get people's feedback on the pricing and packaging."
BSkyB declined to comment on what incentives it will use to get viewers to buy digital set-top boxes,
which will retail at about 200 pounds ($327). Pace Micro Technology, one of four manufacturers of
BSkyB's set-top boxes, said it would have its product ready this month. The other set-top makers - Amstrad,
Grundig, and Matsushita's Panasonic - are expected to have their boxes in stores by autumn for the key
pre-Christmas selling period.
In the ongoing competition between Japan's two home satellite services, DirecTV Japan has announced that it will cut subscription fees by up to 75 percent for 11 of its channels by July.
According to a company spokeswoman, DirecTV Japan plans to adjust prices since five of the 11 channels are also broadcast by its competitor, SkyPerfecTV.
DirecTV, which currently offers 88 channels to about 109,000 subscribers, expects to eventually expand its services to 130 channels, the spokeswoman said.
SkyPerfecTV, a merger between two major digital satellite broadcasters, offers 171 channels and has
about 672,000 subscribers.
SkyBridge, a proposed low-earth-satellite telecommunications system that wants to provide global broadband services, said it will increase its global system capacity by almost 50 percent in an effort to target more than 20 million users worldwide.
The service, which wants to compete with Teledesic and Iridium in the broadband satellite communications market, is scheduled to launch in 2001.
Skybridge has petitioned the FCC seeking to amend current U.S. rules that will allow spectrum sharing among DBS satellites and nongeostationary birds, such as its LEO satellites. Skybridge's efforts began at the World Radio Conference in November, where it won support for its proposal after promising to limit interference between satellites.
France's Alcatel is the general partner of SkyBridge. Other partners include Loral Space &
Communications, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric and Sharp.
A consortium of Japanese car and electronics companies plan to bring a satellite broadcasting service to cars sometime in the year 2000.
The service would allow moving vehicles to receive digital TV and radio signals, as well as electronic data through the use of Toshiba satellite technology. The new venture came together last month when Toyota Motor Corp., Toshiba Corp., and Fujitsu bought an 85% stake in Nihon Mobile Broadcasting Corp.
Backers of Nihon Mobile Broadcasting Corp. expect to launch an initial service of 30 TV channels, with an additional 50-channel system planned for a later release. The service is set to be available nationwide in Japan by 2001, with monthly subscription fees between $5.80 and $7.34.
With 70 million cars in Japan, Nihon expects its mobile satellite service to gain two million subscribers
by 2003 and 10 million subscribers by 2010.
Loral's Skynet unit and EchoStar Communications are partnering for a satellite-delivered video service that will become available to cable operators, programmers and DTH customers.
The strategic alliance will allow individual television packages to be sold separately, but will use the same set-top box technology and conditional access system. Mainstream and specialized "niche" programming from the two companies will be available in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, and the Caribbean.
According to EchoStar, the joint effort will allow specialty program-mers, those providing international channels, distance learning and business television, to "cost-effectively" distribute their content to audiences.
The companies will combine space assets, ground networks and digital distribution resources for the effort. For Loral, that means dedicating part of its Telstar fleet. EchoStar will provide uplinking and distribution through its Cheyenne facility and customer billing and services through its customer care center.
EchoStar will distribute hardware through its existing North American network.
PanAmSat celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the launch of its PAS-1 Atlantic Ocean Region satellite, the first international communications satellite ever launched by a commercial company.
With PAS-1's launch in 1988, PanAmSat became the first private entity to challenge the likes of Intelsat and other satellite providers established by government-backed treaty organizations. The bird provides coverage of the Americas and Europe, and is located at 43 degrees.
In addition to becoming the first private-sector international satellite, other firsts marked by PAS-1 are: The first cable television satellite in Latin America, delivering a range of international programming that has fostered the exponential growth of cable television services in the region; The first commercial satellite to transmit digital television channels, which were introduced in 1991; and The first and only commercial communications satellite ever owned and bankrolled by an individual (Rene Anselmo, PanAmSat's late founder).
When PAS-1 was launched in 1988, PanAmSat had no customers and has regulatory approval only to provide international service between the United States and Peru. CNN became PanAmSat's first PAS-1 customer for program distribution to Latin America. Iridium's Giant Advertising Push Begins
Iridium, the hand-held satellite phone and paging network scheduled to debut in September, launched an ad campaign in 45 markets, an effort that is expected to be one of the world's biggest advertising events.
The advertising push, created by Amirati Puris Lintas, is targeting the global business traveler through print and television advertising and outdoor advertising, in addition to non-traditional media, such as interactive and brand experiences. A direct marketing campaign has been developed in collaboration with DraftWorldwide, APL's sister company in The Interpublic Group of Companies.
In some markets, powerful lasers will beam Iridium's logo onto clouds.
"To our knowledge, this is the first time that a new global brand has been launched on such a scale," said John Windolph, executive director, marketing and corporate commun-ications at Iridium.
Cancom sold its 8.5 percent equity ownership in ExpressVu to BCE for approximately $13 million, resulting in a total recovery of the investment Cancom made in the digital satellite provider since its creation in 1994.
Cancom also concluded an agreement with ExpressVu to supply the DTH operator with a minimum of five Cancom signals over the next five-years, as well as U.S. superstation WSBK in Boston.
"The sale of our interest in ExpressVu permits us to redeploy our capital resources towards growth in
our specific areas of expertise, while at the same time concluding an excellent affiliation agreement
between the Cancom Broadcast Solutions division and ExpressVu which provides us with a valuable
revenue stream for a considerable period of time," Duncan McEwan, Cancom President and CEO, said.
Disney purchased of a 43 percent stake in Infoseek last week, setting the family entertainment giant to gain prime portal positioning on the Internet.
Through the deal, Infoseek gains ownership of Disney's portion of Starwave and $70 million in cash, while Disney gains 25.8 million shares of Infoseek and a minority position on the Internet provider's board. The new entity will bring together Disney's ABCNEWS.com and ESPN.com with one of the Internet's most popular search and directory services.
"This agreement stakes out an even more ambitious role for Disney in this promising medium and
provides an ideal partnership for the creation of a new Internet portal service," Chairman Michael Eisner
said. "We have made great strides as a sports, news and entertainment programmer on the Internet over the
past four years. Through our association with Infoseek, we are now well-positioned to take advantage of the
Internet as it evolves into commercial maturity."
Ellipso and its main backer Mobile Communications Holdings ordered Boeing to begin construction of the first two satellites in Ellipso's global satellite system, in compliance with the first milestone in the company's FCC license awarded last year.
Ellipso plans to deliver mobile and fixed site voice and data through a 17-satellite constellation. Service is expected to start in 2000.
Boeing will design and manufacture the Ellipso satellites. In addition to starting construction of the
spacecraft, Boeing will finalize and validate the design of the complete Ellipso system, including the space,
ground and terminal segments.
USSB voluntarily returned authorization for eight frequencies at the 148 degree orbital location.
The company it returned the authorization to the Federal Communications Commission so it can
continue to concentrate on the development of its existing business at the 101 degree orbital location it
shares with DirecTV. USSB also said it is pursuing independent business oppor-tunities at its authorized
110 orbital location.
U.S. Digital Communications and its subsidiary Skysite Communications enlisted global news provider CNN for the upcoming Iridium beta test program.
CNN will participate in the tests from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31. CNN staffers in the field will use Iridium/SkySite hand-sets to com-municate with their main office via satellite, mostly in areas where regular cellular phone use is limited or non-existent.
Iridium's global commercial service debuts Sept. 23. The system is a satellite-based, digital
communications system that will provide subscribers with worldwide voice, paging, data and fax capability.
Customers will be linked to a constellation of 66 Low-Earth Orbiting satellites.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the federal government will study the proposed merger between Tele- Communications Inc. and AT&T, but it hasn't been determined whether a review would be done by the Justice Department's Antitrust Division or the FTC. Both have responsibility for enforcing antitrust laws.
Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein said that if his antitrust division does review the merger, the deal will be considered on its merits. "We evaluate all mergers on their own facts. I don't have any preconceptions," he told reporters after testifying at a House hearing. "We'll look at the merger and determine whether it's good for consumers and good for America, or not good for consumers, and we'll take action accordingly."
Klein is fighting PrimeStar's proposed acquisition of DBS satellite assets owned by News Corp. and MCI, saying the move would give cable companies backing the satellite provider too much control over a competitive service.
FCC Chairman William Kennard also commented on the deal. "If AT&T and TCI make a strong commitment to bring residential consumers more choice in local telephone and high-speed Internet access services, then this proposed merger is eminently thinkable," he said in a statement.