Jordanian authorities have revoked the press credentials of Iran's Arabic-language news network 'Al-Alam', offering only a vague explanation.

Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif said the news network had been ordered to stop reporting from Jordan because it was not “officially registered with the concerned authorities”.

Al-Alam, however, dismissed the claims, saying that it had applied for a license six months ago and that it had been working in the country with the full knowledge of Jordanian authorities.

In a similar move, Jordan revoked the press credentials of Iran's English-language news network Press TV, claiming that its license “had expired a month ago and they did not apply for renewal.”

History Channel UK changes name

From http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?area=4&article=50598

History Channel UK, a joint venture between US cablecaster AETN Television Networks and UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB, is changing its name to AETN UK, effective immediately.

The company said at a press lunch today that the name change reflects the explosive growth of its portfolio of brands in the UK from one channel in 1995 to seven in 2009. However, the channel brands managed by the company will remain the same.

Tom Davidson, MD of AETN UK, said: “We have grown from a single linear channel on Sky to an international operation comprising multiple channel brands, distribution across linear and digital platforms, websites and more. We look forward to further growth within the UK and throughout the European territories we service.”

Reliance BIG TV launches iStock - India’s first portfolio tracking service on a DTH platform

From http://www.equitybulls.com/admin/news2006/news_det.asp?id=55947

- Unique Portfolio Manager for tracking personal investments

- Partners with Reliance Money to create iStock zone on DTH platform

- Unique case of tapping synergies of Reliance ADA Group’s multi-sector, multi-domain expertise

Bangalore,July 02, 2009: Reliance BIG TV has today launched a new interactive feature, iStock, India’s first portfolio tracking application through their DTH platform.

Reliance Big TV has launched this unique application in association with Reliance Money. Reliance Money has created a unique iStock zone on Reliance BIG TV’s DTH platform. This zone will not only provide information about Indian and international indices, currencies, commodity, stock and market news; but also provide Reliance Big TV customers with value added services including a unique personal portfolio management tracker.

Commenting on the launch of this unique interactive application, Mr. Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Communications said, “The iStock launch is an excellent illustration of the Reliance ADA Group successful effort to draw synergies of its domain expertise across various sectors. The iStock application is part of our endeavour to offer customers unique and differentiated content and enhance their overall interaction with the Reliance BIG TV brand.”

“Since the launch of Reliance BIG TV, we have been at the forefront of driving DTH penetration in India. We escalated the DTH growth story in India with the largest on ground roll-out of a home entertainment service in India. And we followed this up by acquiring one million customers within 90 days of launch,” Mahesh Prasad added.

According to Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Managing Director, Reliance Money said, “At Reliance Money, it is our constant endeavor to innovate and provide our customers with value added services and increased levels of convenience. As a part of our electronic channel strategy to meet this objective, Reliance Money is already present on the Internet through our trading kiosks and on the mobile. Embracing the DTH platform of Reliance Big TV was the logical next step in providing our customers the added advantage of being able to access Reliance Money's portal content from the comfort of their living rooms.”

An exclusive and unique feature of Reliance BIG TV’s iStock application is the personal Portfolio Manager. iStock’s Portfolio Manager will allow users to add, track upward / downward movement of their stocks automatically and the overall gain / loss of their investments. The Portfolio Manager will allow users to add up to 16 stocks in the portfolio and monitor them independently with an option to edit/ delete/ replace the target stocks anytime. Reliance BIG TV will also present all the information in graphic charts to display the trends.

This is part of Reliance BIG TV’s increasing focus to build its DTH VAS portfolio. The company plans to drive growth and broaden its customer base by a focused approach on providing unique and benchmarking value added services. Currently over 10% of Reliance BIG TV’s subscriber base uses its various interactive features such as iGames, iCooking, iNews, iAstro and iSports. Though currently offered as a “free of cost service”, as part of its long term strategy, Reliance BIG TV may decide to monetize its interactive applications through targeted revenue modules.

Reliance BIG TV sees big appeal for iStock application from cities and smaller towns alike especially amongst the trading community who have invested in markets and would like to keep a close watch on their stocks.

Reliance BIG TV’s iNTERACTIVE applications offer a world of exclusive interactive features at the touch of a button on the Reliance BIG TV remote. iSTOCK is the latest in a bouquet of growing interactive applications under its iNTERACTIVE services which include sporting action on iSPORTS, games application iGAMES, daily astro feature iASTRO, recipe-rich iCOOKING and iNEWS with the latest news updates.

From http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/hometech/mildura-our-digital-guinea-pigs-20090630-d3w1.html?page=-1

Mildura will lead the charge as Australia waves goodbye to analog, writes Larry Schwartz.

In 364 days, an estimated 60,000 television viewers in and around Mildura, in the north-west of Victoria, will lead Australia into the digital-only television era.

"The rest of Australia is going to watch this and say, 'Strike me,' if it's a basket-case and there's bad media and people going off crook," said the federal member for Mallee, John Forrest.

"It's not going to look good for the rest of the nation, especially the metropolis."

The digital switch-over in the Mildura-Sunraysia area in the middle of next year will take place more than three years before the residents of Tasmania and the mainland state and territory capitals switch from analog free-to-air television. Melbourne's switch-over period is set down for the six months to December 31, 2013.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy foreshadowed that lessons learnt from Mildura would be applied elsewhere in Australia. His department has a unit, the Digital Switchover Taskforce that is working on the digital conversion.

Why is Mildura first out of the blocks? "It was first identified because it had the highest concentration of set-top boxes of any community in Australia," Mr Forrest said.

"Secondly, from a terrestrial point of view it was not a bad place to start because it's flat earth, dead flat. So there aren't any other complicating factors like having big mountains in the way."

However, a spokesman for the task force, John Noble, confirmed the greatest factor was early digital TV adoption. More than 70 per cent of homes in the Mildura licence area have a digital TV tuner much higher than the national average of 47 per cent.

Mr Noble said a third digital-only channel, Ten, introduced in 2005 in a joint venture between Prime and WIN TV, had accelerated the adoption of digital tuners. "This higher-than-average conversion can be seen in Tasmania and Darwin, which also have third (commercial) digital-only channels," he said.

Mr Noble said regional centres such as Mildura might not pose significant technical problems for transmission but nevertheless, there were some isolated communities.

For instance, the town of Underbool is in the Mildura-Sunraysia licence area but the signals from the broadcaster-owned transmitter at Yatpool, 20 kilometres south of Mildura, don't reach the town.

Underbool residents contributed money to a transmission tower so they could watch analog television.

It is among the areas identified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority where residents are eligible for $300 to subsidise satellite dishes estimated to cost more than $600.

The Government is also offering an assistance package to households where at least one resident receives the full aged pension, disability support pension, carer allowance or the equivalent from the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Australia is favouring a region-by-region approach similar to the British digital conversion, which will finish in 2012, rather than the whole-of-nation approach in the US. Earlier this year, officials in the US delayed the February 17 deadline for four months after it was found that 12.6 million households that relied on free-to-air television signals were not prepared for digital TV.

"It's a mixed blessing for this community," state MP for Mildura, Peter Crisp, said of problems encountered by people living in outlying towns.

Residents of Ouyen, more than 100 kilometres south of Mildura, are also having trouble receiving the digital signal from the Yatpool transmitter.

"We are going to be the first place to embrace digital but you have fringe issues that are going to have to be resolved first," Mr Crisp said.

Some of the 1400 or more residents of Ouyen have installed high antenna towers trying to reach a digital TV signal.

"It depends where you are located," said electrical technician Mark Wilson, who is also chairman of lobby group Ouyen Incorporated. "It's distance and geography. If you're in a lower area, you may not get the signal without the added expense of putting up a tower.

"Personally, I get a good signal. I'm on top of a hill. But I know the variation in quality from the work we do in the township. People go to the expense of putting in the new aerials and the cable and everything that goes with it as well as buying the new plasma or LCD TV, if not a set-top box and they're still experiencing some problems."

Despite claims that any area receiving a good analog signal would receive a good digital signal, Mr Wilson said this was not always the case. Senator Conroy said recently some Australians lived in areas where the broadcasters had not built transmitters, or terrain prevented signals reaching them, "but this is no reason for them to be denied access to TV".

The high take-up in Mildura has occurred since the introduction of the digital-only third channel and Ben Maas, who works at a Mildura electronics store, said sales of digital TVs and set-top boxes were "pretty stable".

Jennifer Douglas, who heads one of several Mildura production companies, Sweet Pea Productions, welcomed the change but saw technical challenges in the shift from a squarish portrait image of analog sets, with a screen ratio of 4:3, to widescreen, with a ratio of 16:9.

"Because most of the content we produce is already high definition," she said of her company's commercials and community service announcements, "it will allow us to utilise all our facilities.

"So instead of producing lower-quality productions in 4:3, everything will now have to be 16:9 and it means a better quality of production for our community."

She said production companies would still have to cater to those with set-top boxes connected to old televisions.

At the same time, they will try to offer the benefits to those with newer televisions capable of viewing the full widescreen ratio.

For others, the challenge is in the difference between licence area and regional boundaries.

Murrayville is within the 22,000 square kilometre Mildura Rural City but cannot receive the Yatpool signal because it is in the Remote Central and Eastern Australia licence area. Services are delivered via the Aurora satellite platform. Switch-over for this licence area does not occur until the second half of 2013.

Peter Willesdorf, a Murrayville sheep, wheat and barley farmer, said he received his television news and weather from as far afield as Darwin, Mount Isa, Alice Springs and Brisbane and it was hardly local or relevant.

John Forrest has been lobbying for the inclusion of this farming community so its 350 or so residents can watch the same television as the rest of Mildura.

He said he had failed so far to have the Yatpool signal boosted.

But he was determined to see Murrayville included in the licence area.

"They're using us as guinea pigs," the federal MP said. "We accept that. If it's done properly, we will get a good outcome."

Television reception is as big an issue out here as anywhere. Forrest campaigned on the promise of a third channel when he successfully stood for election in 1993. He was wary when his electorate was chosen as the first to switch over to digital.

"I didn't support it initially," he said. "But I can see the wisdom of it. In fact, my community is now saying this is an opportunity for us."

TV3 convicted of Rugby World Cup advertising breach

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/television/news/article.cfm?c_id=339&objectid=10582114

TV3 has escaped any serious financial penalty for breaking the Sunday advertising law during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The network faced up to $300,000 in fines, but the Auckland District Court today ordered it should only pay legal costs of $5000 and court costs of $390.

A prosecution was brought by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, which said that the company broke the law during the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France when it showed advertising.

Director of special projects at TV3's parent company Mediaworks Rick Friesen said the company was "very happy" with the result, especially since there was a potential for a $300,000 fine - $100,000 for each Sunday it broadcast.

"To get this type of judgement, I think it's great," Mr Friesen said.

"Although we have been convicted, our breaking of the law was unintentional - we really felt we had found a way of doing it legally by broadcasting from France. And obviously the court disagreed with us, but we did not set out to break the law. And I think it's clear in that judgement.

"There were no complaints from the public - during all three of those Sundays, there were no complaints whatsoever."

People would expect to see advertising during a rugby telecast, he said. "It's normal."

"There was no harm done to anyone and the law is frankly very outdated and should be changed. We're the only medium so regulated. Every other medium can advertise on Sunday morning and we're the only country in the world that has that restriction."

Freisen said he did not think TV3's commercial rivals should be upset at the court decision.

"I think they would all support the concept of advertising on Sunday morning."

TV3 told the court during the case that its aim was to provide "free to air" coverage in compliance with the law and its own legitimate commercial aims.

"As the defendant operates a free-to-air channel the defendant had to broadcast advertisements to be able to meet the cost associated with obtaining the rights to screen the Rugby World Cup matches," says the court decision.

"Rather than causing harm to the community by breaching the Act, the defendant contended that by broadcasting the matches free-to-air, incorporating ordinary commercial advertising, it was providing a service to all New Zealanders."

Under the Broadcasting Act, advertisements can be screened on Sunday mornings if the signal for the programme comes from outside New Zealand, is transmitted simultaneously to audiences outside and inside New Zealand and is aimed primarily at audiences outside New Zealand.

TV3 had an arrangement with Fiji TV to broadcast its entire signal for the Rugby World Cup to more than nine million people in the Pacific Islands.

But Judge Allison Sinclair said in her judgment that the advertisements were for New Zealand companies and were directed at a New Zealand audience.

She said TV3 had made no claim that it derived any income from the Pacific Islands for the commercials. The court also said that with a total population of nine million, the Pacific Islands had only 361,000 TV sets, while New Zealand's four million people had 1.9 million sets.

Koreasat-2 Going... Going... Gone To Asia Broadcast Satellite

From http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=710662955

KT Corporation and Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) announced that they have signed an agreement for the sale and purchase of the Koreasat-2 satellite.

The closing of the sale will occur upon the issuance of the necessary U.S. governmental approvals. The Koreasat-2 satellite is a Lockheed Martin G3000 spacecraft launched in January of 1996. The satellite has a Ku-band payload with 16 x 36MHz FSS Ku-band transponders and 6 x 27MHz DBS Ku-band transponders. As a result of the transaction, the Koreasat-2 will be renamed as ABS-1A. ABS plans to relocate ABS-1A (Koreasat-2) to the 75 degrees East orbital location to be co-located with ABS-1, until the launch of its recently announced expansion satellite, ABS-2, which is scheduled for launch early 2012. The ABS-1A (Koreasat-2) satellite has fuel for a minimum of 2 to 5 years of inclined orbit operations and will provide valuable high powered Ku-band capacity for satellite telecommunications and broadcast services to ABS’ customers in the Middle East region. ABS has contracted KT Corporation to provide the satellite operations and Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) services for the ABS-1A (Koreasat-2) satellite

MEASAT-3a Satellite Prepares For In-Orbit Testing

From http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=422325

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 (Bernama) - MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd announced Wednesday that the MEASAT-3a satellite has been successfully moved to the 91.4E orbital slot in preparation for In-Orbit testing.

The relocation of the satellite to the 91.4E was achieved after the completion of transfer orbit operations and successful deployment of the satellite's solar arrays and reflectors, it said in a statement.

After the completion of In-Orbit testing, expected during the third week of July, MEASAT-3a will be moved into the 91.5E orbital slot where, collocated with MEASAT-3, the satellite would support the continued growth of the MEASAT customer base, it said.

MEASAT is a premium supplier of satellite communication services to Asia's leading broadcasters, DTH platforms and telecom operators.

Operating three communications satellites, the MEASAT fleet is able to provide satellite capacity to over 145 countries representing 80 percent of the world's population across Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe and Australia.

Indonesia successfully launches rocket into space

From http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/02/content_11641055.htm

Operators must invest in Asia/Pacific IPTV

From http://www.advanced-television.com/2009/jun29_jul3.htm#h8

Despite the massive investments necessary in Asia/Pacific's IPTV market, both in technology and content procurement, telecom operators must invest to gain subscriber market share according to a report from Pyramid Research, the telecom research arm of the Light Reading Communications Network.

Although Asia/Pacific has the distinction of having the most successful IPTV operators globally, and rollouts continue throughout the region, operators continue to face challenges in three key areas: regulatory constraints, content, and technology costs, notes Charles Moon, analysts at Pyramid Research and author of the report. "Typically, regulatory issues come first, then the mammoth challenge of valuing and procuring content along with technology issues - both of which can affect subscriber take-up and bottom lines," says Moon.

"One of the most glaring problems surrounding IPTV has been the lack of any framework around the service, putting it in a grey area, with neither the telecom nor broadcasting regulators having clear oversight of the sector," says Moon. Also, the initial investments required in order to acquire content can be prohibitive for smaller players. "To make matters worse, the entrenched position of cable companies in markets like Japan and South Korea make it even more difficult for new IPTV players to negotiate for content rights," he explains. "In addition to the lack of adequate infrastructure and the high cost of STBs hindering adoption, the fight to defend market share is intensifying."

Asia/Pacific provides good lessons for operators faced with developing a business case for IPTV services and determining an appropriate strategy for long-term success. "We believe the long-term opportunities that IPTV brings outweigh the short-term risks," Moons says. "The promise of media, and the escape it provides from dumb-pipe business models, is encouraging carriers to take risks and make grabs for market share," he adds. "Further, the benefits associated from capturing customers - such as lower churn, new service provisioning, and higher cash flows - provide a case for short-term sacrifices."

Largest-Ever Telecommunications Satellite Launched

From http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Largest_Ever_Telecommunications_Satellite_Launched_999.html

The Ariane 5's 31st consecutive mission success was another record-setting flight for this workhorse Arianespace launcher - lofting the world's largest commercial satellite, TerreStar-1, from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Lifting off from the ELA-3 launch zone on a rare afternoon departure, the Ariane 5 deployed TerreStar-1 into geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes later. With a launch mass of nearly 6,910 kg., TerreStar-1 was carried as a solo payload on the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA mission, which followed Arianespace's most recent flight by less than two months.

"This 31st consecutive success for Ariane 5 - which is our third launch in 2009 - perfectly illustrates that high performance and reliability can go hand in hand," said Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall. "Ariane 5 also has demonstrated its real capability to perform a complete range of missions - from launches of the heaviest commercial satellites to the most complex scientific spacecraft."

Le Gall thanked TerreStar-1's operator - U.S.-based TerreStar Networks - for its confidence, noting this is the 29th new satellite company to have relied on Arianespace for the launch of an initial spacecraft.

TerreStar-1 will be located at an orbital position of 111 deg. West, offering new-generation mobile communications services across the United States and Canada. It was produced at Space Systems/Loral's Palo Alto, California facility, and was the 34th spacecraft built by this U.S. satellite manufacturer to be launched by Arianespace.

Operating in the 2-GHz spectrum with an 18-meter deployable reflector and powerful S-band feed array, TerreStar-1 will be able to manage some 500 spot beams.

It is designed to supply secure communications services to governments in emergency situations, as well as to rural communities. The satellite also will provide voice, data and video transmission services to businesses via dual satellite/ground terminals approximately the size of a typical smart phone.

In post-launch comments from the Spaceport's control center, TerreStar Networks President Jeffrey Epstein showed the type of handheld device that will function with the company's communications network and the TerreStar-1 satellite. He also expressed the excitement of experiencing the Ariane 5's launch first-hand.

"We are deeply appreciative of Arianespace's efforts," Epstein said. "What we just witnessed is the culmination of millions of hours of advanced technology in satellite deployment here, and it's truly remarkable to watch."

An on-target flight, and a new Ariane 5 mission in August
TerreStar-1 had a liftoff mass of nearly 6,910 kg. And was carried as a solo payload on the Ariane 5 heavy-lift flight from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

- Perigee: 249.9 km. For a target of 249.7 km.

- Apogee: 35,941 km. For a target of 35,928 km.

- Inclination: 6.01 degrees for a target of 6.00

At the completion of the mission, Arianespace's Le Gall announced that Ariane 5's next launch is set for mid-August, carrying a dual-satellite payload for two Asia-Pacific customers: JCSAT-12 for Japan's SKY Perfect JSAT Corp.; and Australia's Optus D3.

Le Gall said Arianespace remains on track to perform seven Ariane 5 flights during 2009. The Ariane 5 ECA for its upcoming mid-August mission has completed the initial build-up in the Spaceport's Launcher Integration Building.

This vehicle will now be readied for transfer to the Final Assembly Building - which opened up yesterday morning after the Ariane 5 with TerreStar-1 moved out to the launch zone.

Arianespace's ability to prepare two Ariane 5s in parallel at the Spaceport is a key to its flexibility and reactivity - which is further enhanced by the heavy-lift workhorse's ability to orbit two primary satellite payloads on a single flight.

The three Ariane 5 missions performed so far in 2009 have lofted a total of seven spacecraft with a combined payload mass of nearly 19,600 kg.

Arianespace's first flight of the year was on February 12, orbiting the HOT BIRDT 10 and NSS-9 commercial telecommunications satellites, along with two Spirale auxiliary passengers for the French defense procurement agency. This was followed by the May 14 launch of Europe's Herschel and Planck deep space telescopes, which were placed on Earth escape trajectories for their 1. 5 million km. Voyages to the second Lagrange point (L2).

Joost exits consumer online video business

From http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5wua26LWn4XA6hdF4kBdX7E-7ogD995SC080

Struggling online video startup Joost, begun with much fanfare in 2007 by the same people behind Skype and Kazaa, is restructuring its business after discovering that it can't survive on advertising to fund its operations.

The chief executive, Mike Volpi, has stepped down but will remain as chairman.

The London-based company said it will shift its focus from being an online video site for consumers supported by advertising — similar to Google Inc.'s YouTube. Instead, it will help businesses manage their videos on the Internet as they build brands.

Its target market will be media companies such as cable and satellite TV providers, broadcasters and video aggregators.

"In these tough economic times, it's been increasingly challenging to operate as an independent, ad-supported online video platform," Volpi said in a statement.

Joost was co-founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the same people behind Internet phone service Skype and the file-sharing site Kazaa. It has minority investments from Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.

It started as a peer-to-peer sharing site but wasn't successful, then switched to online video. But Joost has suffered from poor traffic and had trouble making money.

Joost, which also has offices in New York, is closing its Leiden office in the Netherlands. The company declined to say how many people it's laying off.

Volpi will be replaced by Matt Zelesko, who's currently senior vice president of engineering. Zelesko will continue to head the engineering division.

Stacey Seltzer, senior vice president of international business development and content acquisition, will run the business operations.

TV9 brings Telugu channel to US

From http://twocircles.net/2009jul01/tv9_brings_telugu_channel_us.html

HANOI, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said the country's first satellite image receiving station will be inaugurated in early July, the Vietnam News Agency reported Tuesday.

The station for the satellite image receiver is located in an outlying district of the capital city Hanoi, said Nguyen Xuan Lam, Director of the ministry's National Remote Sensing Center.

It is built at a cost of nearly 20 million euros (about 28 million U.S. dollars), with fund from France's loans, said Lam.

The station will process images taken by satellite to update land and forest information and locate the burned-down or destroyed forest areas, said the agency.

Dialog TV launches Kidsco in SL

From http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=53411

KidsCo, the international children’s channel owned by leading media companies NBC Universal, Cookie Jar Group and Corus Entertainment Inc., has secured an agreement with Dialog TV for the channel to air in Sri Lanka.  

KidsCo offers three programming zones:  preschoolers,  kids between 6-10 years and the family. The programmes have been designed and developed to fit diverse lifestyles, featuring great animated and live action content plus movies. These include The Wiggls, New Adventures of Madeline, Sabrina, Tracy Beaker, Dennis the Menace, the Magic School Bus; also original KidsCo programming including art shows and Jass Time.

“Dialog TV takes immense pleasure in joining hands with KidsCo, one of the best edutainment channels for children the world over,” said Nushad Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Dialog Television. “As Sri Lanka’s premier satellite infotainment service provider, we are committed to offer high-quality programming to our subscribers across all ages, particularly children. We take special interest in offering children’s programmes that facilitate the growth and development of young minds,” Perera added. 

KidsCo will be added to subscribers on Dialog TV’s premium package and for Set Plans. KidsCo’s launch in Sri Lanka is an important milestone in the channel’s brand roll-out. It is now available in Asian territories including Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mongolia and Taiwan.

KidsCo Managing Director, Paul Robinson, commented: “We are delighted to introduce KidsCo to Sri Lanka. Children in the region will now have access to a schedule full of entertainment and educational programming, which is endorsed by parents. It is our choice of appropriate and learning-based programming which makes KidsCo an attractive proposition to our affiliates. We look forward to working with Dialog TV in building the KidsCo brand in Sri Lanka.”

BBC WW adds two in Korea

From http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/200906304155/bbc-ww-adds-two-in-korea.html

BBC Worldwide will launch two channels on Korean IPTV platform Broad & TV, following a deal with operator SK Broadband.

BBC Lifestyle will make its Korean debut today, July 1, with BBC Entertainment also joining the platforn. BBC Entertainment is already available in South Korea, via the SkyLife satellite platform.

Mark Whitehead, General Manager and Senior Vice President of BBC Worldwide Channels, Asia said: “The launch of BBC Entertainment and BBC Lifestyle on SK Broadband is an important development for us; as BBC Lifestyle makes its broadcast debut in South Korea, we are also introducing BBC Entertainment to a wider audience. Korea is an important market in our growth strategy in Asia, and our partnership with SK Broadband builds on our commitment to bring great quality programming to more viewers in the region.”

BBC Lifestyle has six strands of programming, Home & Design, Food, Personal Development, Fashion & Style, Health & Parenting. Programming includes Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Indian Food Made Easy hosted by “the Indian Nigella”, Anjum Anand.

BBC Entertainment programming includes drama Silent Witness, and comedy The Mighty Boosh.

China state news agency plans English TV service

From http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5Zczjw87fgzluLREyLQShLIO_DgD995H1781

BEIJING (AP) — The main media arm of the Chinese government said Wednesday it had launched a trial run for an international English-language television news service as part of a drive to boost the country's image and global media influence.

The Xinhua News Agency said its reporters across China and in more than 110 countries will produce domestic and international news that will be delivered to customers around the world at TV stations, Web sites, outdoor screens and to mobile users.

The move comes as the People's Daily, the staid daily that chronicles the activities of the Communist Party leadership and publishes editorials praising official policies, also expands its international coverage.

Xinhua would "interpret global events objectively and impartially from a Chinese angle and bring novel perspectives to foreign audiences," the agency quoted its president, Li Congjun, as telling an inauguration ceremony.

He said Xinhua would strive to become "an important TV news supplier for the world's users." That would potentially make it a competitor to news agencies such as The Associated Press and ThomsonReuters which already provide television footage along with text stories and photographs to worldwide customers.

The service will be formally launched on Dec. 31. It will be transmitted through satellite to Chinese users, and over the Internet to users in other countries.

Despite its rapid economic growth and rising global influence, China has retained its authoritarian one-party political system with strict limits on freedom of speech and civil and political life. The new TV service could be an attempt to provide an alternative to Western media coverage of the country.

Chinese authorities makes little secret of its disapproval of much of the international coverage of events inside China, sometimes, for example, blacking out TV news broadcasts on sensitive topics such as the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananamen Square.

Also Wednesday, the People's Daily said in a front-page announcement that it was expanding from 16 pages to 20 pages, adding three pages on domestic and international news and one page of articles of theoretical studies, or arts and literature reviews.

It said the expansion, on the 88th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party, was "an important step toward strengthening the capacity for publicity at home and abroad ... and also a birthday present that the People's Daily dedicates to the party."

The telephone for the spokesperson of the newspaper, which has 72 foreign and domestic bureaus, rang unanswered Wednesday.

The People's Daily was launched one year before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Its daily circulation surpassed 2 million in 2007, and it now has more than 20 subsidiary publications, including an English-language newspaper launched earlier this year.

The moves are believed to be part of a 45 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) government plan to fund a major expansion of Xinhua, the People's Daily and state broadcaster CCTV, as reported earlier this year by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper.

All three state media organizations enjoy top-level party support and funding, along with virtual monopolies in certain sectors of their domestic markets.

Officials have not confirmed the plan's details, but the Post said it calls for Xinhua to add a 24-hour satellite news channel. CCTV would add Arabic and Russian-language channels to its international Chinese, English, French and Spanish services, the newspaper said.

Xinhua has previously announced that it planned to provide English-language news for broadcast on screens in supermarkets in Europe in partnership with about a dozen European broadcast partners. But it has not given details on where this would happen or if it is linked to the television news service launch.

Kazsat-3 may be constructed along with Israel

From http://eng.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=133974

Kazakhstan may construct Kazsat satellite along with Israel. The chairman of the Kazakhstan National Space Agency, Talgat Musabayev, informed after the ceremony of signing of the agreements at the Kazakhstan-Israeli business forum, "Kazakhstan Today" agency reports.

According to T. Musabayev, the intergovernmental agreements signed on Tuesday will allow realization in the future of the joint space projects.

"These are the projects on creation of satellite and communication systems, including Kazsat, but not Kazsat-2. It is being already created along with Russia. Kazsat-3 and others may be made with Israel," T. Musabayev specified.

Kazcosmos chairman informed that Kazakhstan may realize in cooperation with Israel the projects of creation of the satellite systems of remote sounding of the earth for scientific purposes and others.

New Sirius XM Radio Satellite Launches to Orbit

From http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sfn-090630-proton-satellite-launch.html

ESPN secures EPL slots

From http://www.advanced-television.com/2009/jun29_jul3.htm#w3

ESPN, which last week acquired its first live English Premier League (EPL) TV rights, has secured its presence on Freeview and is expected to launch a high- definition version of its soon-to-launch EPL channel on Sky. Broadcasting on Freeview pay-TV service Top Up TV, ESPN America is using a channel previously occupied by Setanta, which went into administration last week.

ESPN will broadcast live EPL action in the UK for the first time in its history, after landing the rights to air 46 games for the 2009/2010 season and 23 games in each of the three following seasons.

It is understood to have paid about £250 million (E294m) for EPL rights over the next four seasons. Access to the 9.9 million homes that Freeview, both free-to-air and via pay-TV through Top Up TV, provides is key for ESPN as it looks to sign up enough subscribers to make its EPL investment pay off.

The Disney-backed sports broadcaster has also struck what it termed "interim" deals with Sky and BT Vision to make ESPN America available via these operators' platforms.

Meanwhile, ESPN is understood to be working on deals to wholesale its new EPL channel to Top Up TV, Virgin Media and BT Vision. It already has such a deal with Sky, with the pay-TV platform marketing and retailing the channel instead of ESPN.

16:38 GMT, June 29, 2009 CANBERRA, Australia | BAE Systems Australia has been selected to provide another satellite communications (SATCOM) support service to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

BAE Systems’ Joint Business Unit will operate and support the Primary Injection Facility (PIF) Mission System located at the HMAS Harman facility near Canberra, under a five-year, AUD $18.5 million, performance-based contract.

The PIF is the “gateway” to the Advanced SATCOM Terrestrial Infrastructure System (ASTIS) that forms the basis of the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Capability (ADSCC).

The ADSCC enables broadcast of Command and Control (C2) communications and high volume information products and allows deployed forces and other users to connect and communicate with the Defence Secret, Restricted, theatre broadcast, voice and video networks via the PIF at HMAS Harman.

Under the contract, BAE Systems Australia will:
• Operate the PIF Mission System on a 24/7 basis
• Phase in and provide an availability based Support System
• Provide a 24-hour help desk
• Manage the theatre broadcast system
• Provide ASTIS test and integration support, and
• Act as Design Authority for the PIF Mission and Support Systems.

Kim Scott, Director, Joint Business Unit, said today that BAE Systems Australia had worked hard to understand the ADF’s requirements and put forward a comprehensive plan that would deliver the ADF’s SATCOM PIF operations and support capability.

“Our focus has been to meet and exceed the ADSCC goal of maintaining decision superiority by enhancing ‘the ability of all levels of command within the ADF to send and receive the right information at the right time’,” Mr Scott said.

“This contract will enable BAE Systems to continue to work with the ADF to evolve the ADSCC, thereby giving our customer a real advantage in the SATCOM domain.
The contract commences immediately. 

Satellite television dishes cover the home of Lee Si-kap, a farmer. Mr. Lee owns 85 dishes, the most of any South Korean.

YEONGJU, South Korea — Lee Si-kap, a shy farmer living in this central South Korean town, holds a record: He owns more satellite dishes than any other South Korean — 85 of them, receiving 1,500 satellite television channels from more than 100 countries, some as far away as South Africa and Canada.

To passers-by, Mr. Lee’s home stands like an exclamation mark in the otherwise nondescript countryside dotted with apple orchards and ginseng fields. Satellite dishes cover his roof like giant steel mushrooms.

They spread into his front yard and blossom in a field behind his house, some as large as 16 feet in diameter.

Once dismissed as a local eccentric, Mr. Lee has more recently emerged as something of a hero of modest fame, featured on national television as “antenna man.” Since late last year, he and thousands of fellow satellite enthusiasts — including the husbands of foreign brides and a few dedicated souls searching for signals from extraterrestrial life forms — have started a campaign to install free satellite dishes for poor foreign brides living in rural South Korea, so they can receive broadcasts from their home countries.

“Thanks to Mr. Lee, I now miss my country, my mother and father less than I used to,” said Bui Thi Huang, a 22-year-old bride from Haiphong, Vietnam, who now lives here in Yeongju, about 100 miles southeast of Seoul.

In recent years, the South Korean countryside has had an influx of brides from poorer countries like Vietnam, China and the Philippines. Like Ms. Bui, they marry South Korean farmers who have difficulty finding a spouse because so many young Korean women have rejected rural life and migrated to cities.

In towns like Yeongju, these young foreign brides have become a bedrock of the local economy. They work alongside their husbands in the fields and have brought back a sound that was fast becoming a distant memory among the aging farm population here: crying babies.

In South Korea, which had once prided itself on being a homogeneous society, 4 out of 10 women who married in rural communities last year were foreign born. In Yeongju alone, the number of foreign wives increased by 28 percent in the past year and a half, to 250, half of them from Vietnam.

“These women have a hard time fitting in. The local governments, and the husbands, often focus only on making them ‘Korean,’ teaching them the Korean language and computer skills,” said Mr. Lee, 39, who has never married. “They don’t quite understand how isolated these women feel.”

When Mr. Lee, who lives with his 80-year-old mother and 97-year-old grandfather, is not toying with his satellite equipment, he tends his pepper and sesame fields or makes the rounds of nearby villages to see if the foreign brides are having any problems with their television reception.

Mr. Lee and his friends still encounter objections from husbands who are determined to shield their foreign brides from any reminders of their native lands, for fear these might only magnify their homesickness. But they are encouraged that many families have reported that watching satellite broadcasts from home actually helps the women to overcome their loneliness and better adjust to life here.

Mr. Lee says his sympathy for foreign brides stems in part from his own experience of feeling cut off from society.

He felt deeply hurt when his father abandoned him and his mother when he was a small boy, and, lacking self-confidence, had trouble making friends in his neighborhood and at school. He rarely ventured outside his village, and said he still feared making phone calls.

What saved him, he said, was “music — and satellite television.”

“Music was my only friend,” said Mr. Lee, whose dream is to meet his idol, the American heavy metal rock musician Ronnie James Dio. “And because I couldn’t get much rock music on Korean television, I turned to satellite television.”

Satellite television introduced him to the wider world — to Japanese baseball, life on Pacific islands, Russian folk music and religions in India and Nepal.

He installed his first satellite dish in 1992, when he was 23 and had already returned to farming after receiving a vocational college degree in electronics. Collecting secondhand satellite dishes has since become a hobby that verges on an obsession. When most farmers here look to the sky, they read clouds for weather. When Mr. Lee looks skyward, he says, he imagines satellites in earth orbit. To him, the air is filled with broadcast signals, “like seeds from thistles.”

Farmers here at first did not know what to make of their bachelor neighbor, who listened to heavy metal music, often belting out the lyrics in English, sometimes in Japanese. They would see him on the roof under the blazing sun of summer or under the starry winter sky, fiddling for hours with his satellite equipment.

Although he does not understand most languages on the broadcasts he receives, Mr. Lee said: “It gets addictive. The more dishes you have, the more channels you can get.

“Nothing compares with the joy of catching a new broadcast channel from a faraway country,” he said. “It’s like pulling in a big fish. It’s the excitement of discovering something from outside the boundaries of your usual world.”

China to launch English TV channel

From http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/200906294147/china-to-launch-english-tv-channel.html

China’s Xinhua official news agency will launch on Wednesday the first stage of what might become a global English-language news channel. Initially the channel will launch in specific locations, such as outside its own embassies in Europe so that people queuing for visas can get Beijing’s view of the world.

The overall aim is to get China’s voice and perspective of things out there, said a Xinhua official to the Financial Times. “We have been hiring aggressively and building our TV capabilities for months. But still, it will take a long time until we can actually challenge CNN or BBC.”

Some European supermarkets in Belgium will be showing Chinese news to shoppers. From these cautious first steps Xinhua are looking to expand.

Chinese state television broadcaster CCTV already operates the CCTV9 international channel which broadcasts on various cable and satellite platforms across the globe. However, that channel relies heavily on feature and entertainment programming to provide a “softer” view of the country. It is even thought by some observers to be aimed at influencing opinion leaders globally, rather than serving a wider Chinese-interested viewership.

UFC And NMTV Enter Deal To Bring UFC To China TV

From http://sev.prnewswire.com/aerospace-defense/20090628/DC3916928062009-1.html

WASHINGTON, June 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, soared into space today after a successful launch from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The GOES-O spacecraft lifted off at 6:51 p.m. EDT on a Delta IV rocket. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-O satellite will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. The satellite is the second to be launched in the GOES N series of geostationary environmental weather satellites.

"All indications are that GOES-O is in a normal orbit, with all spacecraft systems functioning properly," stated Andre Dress, GOES deputy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We are proud of our support teams and pleased with the performance of the Delta IV launch vehicle."

Approximately 4 hours and 21 minutes after launch, the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle. The Universal Space Network Western Australia tracking site in Dongara monitored the spacecraft separation.

On July 7, GOES-O will be placed in its final orbit and renamed GOES-14. Approximately 24 days after launch, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems will turn engineering control over to NASA. About five months later, NASA will transfer operational control of GOES-14 to NOAA. The satellite will be checked out, stored in orbit and available for activation should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or exhaust its fuel.

NASA contracted with Boeing to build and launch the GOES-O spacecraft. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida supported the launch in an advisory role. NOAA manages the GOES program, establishes requirements, provides all funding and distributes environmental satellite data for the United States. Goddard procures and manages the design, development and launch of the satellites for NOAA on a cost-reimbursable basis.

For more information about the GOES-O mission and program, visit:

http://www.trafficresults.com/click-rabbit.php?acctid=Uli5NqEhc1o=&docid=DC3916928062009-1&redirect=1&url=http://www.nasa.gov/goes-o

and

http://www.trafficresults.com/click-rabbit.php?acctid=Uli5NqEhc1o=&docid=DC3916928062009-1&redirect=1&url=http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.trafficresults.com/click-rabbit.php?acctid=Uli5NqEhc1o=&docid=DC3916928062009-1&redirect=1&url=http://www.nasa.gov

Certain DSTV decoder models to lose reception of some channels

From http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=5306

* Cites liquidity concerns, recurring losses from operations

* Lists assets of up to $500 mln, liabilities of over $1 bln (Adds background, details)

June 23 (Reuters) - Satellite-launch services provider Sea Launch Co and 5 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing liquidity concerns and recurring losses from operations.

In a filing on Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Sea Launch listed assets of up to $500 million and liabilities of more than $1 billion.

The Long Beach, California-based company said in the filing it intends to explore the sale of one or more of its divisions.

Sea Launch, which offers commercial space launch capabilities from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, is owned by among others Boeing Co (BA.N), Russia's RSC Energia and Norway's Aker ASA (AKER.OL).

The case In re Sea Launch Co LLC et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware. No. 09-12153. (Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Saeed Azhar)

TV5MONDE Launch Online TV For Kids

From http://www.asiamediajournal.com/pressrelease.php?id=1083

On June 23 rd, the French-speaking global network TV5MONDE will launch their first online TV platform dedicated to kids: TiVi5MONDE Plus. Aimed at French-speaking youngsters between 3 and 12 years old, this new platform will provide families around the world with an ideal tool to accustom their children with the French language within a secure, commercial-free environment.

On its Asian channel, TV5MONDE currently offers 12 hours of youth content per week, including cartoons, educational shows and youth drama, under the brand umbrella “TiVi5MONDE” (weekdays 5-6:30pm HK time, weekends 9:30-11:30am).

Comments Alexandre MULLER, Managing Director, Asia: “As a generalist channel targeting a family audience, we value our younger viewers very much and we realized that one satellite beam for Asia was not enabling us to reach them effectively, i.e. when they’re available, after school, because of time zones constraints. This online TV will give them the opportunity to watch their favourite programs whatever their time zone”.

The platform will be accessible free-of-charge worldwide (except a few markets to avoid cannibalizing parallel paying offerings), either from TV5MONDE main portal’s youth section (tv5monde.com/tivi5), directly at http://www.tivi5mondeplus.com/ or from a desktop widget. It will offer over 70 hours of content on launch date and a further 100 hours from January 2010. Afterwards the catalogue will be refreshed on a daily basis so as to provide an average 30 hours of new content per month.

Major launch titles will include “Le Manège Enchanté” (The Magic Roundabout), “Spirou et Fantasio” (Spirou and Fantasio) and “Cédric”. Online exclusives will also be featured, the first of which will be multiple award-winning feature-length “Kirikou et la Sorcière” (Kirikou and the Sorceress) by French director Michel Ocelot for 4 weeks after launch.

With a strong focus on user-friendliness, TiVi5MONDE Plus has been designed to allow kids to navigate unattended within a secure, commercial-free branded environment. Users will be able to either watch the live-like channel (consisting of a 3-hour loop of selected programs) or create their own a-la-carte playlist from the TV5MONDE catalogue by simply drag-and-drop items into the tab “Mes préférés” (see attached).

To further complement TV5MONDE’s current in-house, web-based French-learning method “Learn & Teach French with TV5MONDE” (see apprendre.tv and enseigner.tv), lessons and exercises will also be developed for kids to learn French based on their favourite broadcast programs, and bridges between the two platforms will be created to enhance young viewers’ experience with the TV5MONDE brand.

Dialog Tv partners Microimage Mobile Media

From http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=52662

Dialog TV, Sri Lanka’s leading Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider, is partnering with Microimage Mobile Media for its latest vStation – AF Advert insertion platform. vStation AF is part of Microimage’s award winning Video Broadcast Suite consisting of three core solutions; vStation VF (Video/TV Automation Solution), vStation LF (3G / Broadband participation TV solution) and vStation AF (Ad-insertion solution).

The agreements were signed by Mr. Nushad Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Dialog TV, and Mr. Harsha Purasinghe, Chief Executive Officer of Microimage, at BroadcastAsia 2009 in Singapore. Microimage is featuring its range of media and entertainment products at this regional broadcast solutions exhibition.

Microimage vStation AF is a full-featured Advert Insertion Solution. It gives broadcasters the ability to insert local commercials and replace existing adverts on a selected DTH channel. This platform can be deployed with any DTH, Cable or IPTV broadcaster

 looking to generate revenue from local advert insertion. vStation AF platform is bundled with a complete set of modules covering an innovative video console, commercial traffic scheduling, billing, content ingest and management information. Apart from the advert insertion feature, the console facilitates insertion of static and animated logos, multilingual multiple crawlers and animated adverts across the screen.

“We are proud to have been chosen by Dialog TV for the deployment of our vStation-AF advert insertion platform, which will enable it to generate new revenue streams by local commercial advert insertion” said Harsha Purasinghe, CEO of Microimage.  

“Dialog is a firm believer in Sri Lankan talent, which is world-class. In pursuing an ad-insertion solution, we sought a superior product with the added advantage of a strong partnership, support and flexibility. Microimage presents these very attributes, and we are pleased to partner them in our new initiative. Made in Sri Lanka, for Sri Lanka – is one of Dialog TV’s primary objectives, as amply demonstrated with this partnership. We will continue to harvest and harness Sri Lankan talent both on and off the screen,” remarked Nushad Perera.

Microimage Mobile Media is the pioneer and leader in Broadcast Automation Software in Sri Lanka. The company has won local and international recognition for its media and entertainment products. Its flagship product, mStudio, which is used by Sri Lanka’s leading radio stations, won the BCS National Best Quality Software award in 2004. Its latest addition, the vStation video broadcast suite, won the BCS National Best Quality Software Award in 2008, and was runner-up in the Media and Entertainment category at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards held in Jakarta, Indonesia the same year.

Dialog Television (Private) Limited, a subsidiary of Dialog Telekom PLC, operates Dialog Satellite TV, a Direct-to-Home (DTH) Satellite TV service. Offering the best of satellite entertainment to all Sri Lankans, Dialog TV supports a broad array of international content including CNN, BBC, HBO, Cinemax, AXN, ESPN, Discovery Channel, MTV (Music Television) and Cartoon Network, in addition to a wide portfolio of local television channels. Dialog Television has a subscriber base of 150,000 Sri Lankans islandwide

TerreStar-1 is mated with Ariane 5 hardware in preparation for its July 1 Arianespace launch

From http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25669735-15306,00.html

The ABC's head of television, Kim Dalton, has weighed in to the commercial networks' war of words with Foxtel, predicting additional free-to-air digital channels and devices such as Seven Network's TiVo will reduce the appeal of pay TV.

With the ABC's plans for a children's channel and Seven, Nine and Ten adding new standard definition channels to their main and high-definition channels next year, "people will increasingly be presented with a very strong alternative, and they'll be thinking, 'I don't need to spend the money on pay TV"', Mr Dalton said.

"I just think that take-up [of pay TV] is levelling off."

His comments came after Seven stepped up its attacks on Foxtel last week, saying Seven's TiVo digital video recorder, which will go on sale this month, was vastly better than the "inferior DVR in Foxtel circles" that was costing viewers more than $100 in monthly subscription fees.

The pay TV industry reported has just reported that its viewers climbed 5 per cent in the first half of this year, giving it a record 22 per cent audience share from 6am to midnight.

But Seven hit back, saying the majority of the 30 per cent of people subscribing to pay TV watched free-to-air programs in prime time.

Mr Dalton said Seven's $699 TiVo recorder and digital set-top box would remain a "relatively niche product". But such devices would let consumers manage the rising free-to-air multi-channel offering, which would help ensure that "the ability of free-to-air to attract very large audiences will be with us for many, many years to come".

The ABC intensified its internet push yesterday, adding a service to its online shop that lets customers buy or rent 250 hours of its programs by downloading them to their Windows-equipped computers.

The service is aimed at increasing the revenue of its business arm, ABC Commercial.A spokesman said the ABC would add "several hundred more hours" of DVDs to the service by Christmas.

Space Systems/Loral Selected to Provide Powerful Communications Satellites to Intelsat

(Arianespace) - The operator Asia Broadcast Satellite has chosen Arianespace to launch its ABS-2 communications satellite. This is the 10th contract signed by Arianespace in 2009, all with the world’s leading satellite operators.

The launch of ABS-2 into geostationary transfer orbit is scheduled for the first half of 2012. It will be launched by an Ariane 5 ECA from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

ABS-2 is the first satellite for which ABS has chosen an Arianespace launch. Asia Broadcast Satellite, one of the leading operators in the Asia-Pacific region, is Arianespace’s 30th new customer.

The ABS-2 satellite will weigh about 6,000 kg at launch and offers a design life exceeding 15 years. With a payload power of 15 kW it will be fitted with a hybrid C, Ku and Ka-band payload. Positioned at 75 degrees East, ABS-2 will offer a wide range of services for Asia, Russia, Africa and the Middle East, including direct broadcast TV, television distribution via cable, multimedia applications and data networks.

Commenting on this latest contract, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “Arianespace is especially proud of adding Asia Broadcast Satellite to our client list, since ABS is one of the leading operators in the Asia-Pacific. This is the 10th contract we have signed to date in 2009 clearly reflecting the quality and competitiveness of our launch Service & Solutions.”

New satellite opens new doors to SingTel

From http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/news/story/0,4574,337880,00.html

ST-2 will launch in 2011 and improve coverage in emerging markets

SINGAPORE Telecommunications is set to increase its footprint in the important emerging markets of North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia with the launch of a new and powerful satellite - the ST-2 - in 2011.

The ST-2, which goes up in space via an Arianespace launcher, will initially complement and later replace SingTel's current satellite the ST-1 which has been in orbit since 1998. The contract for the launch was signed with Arianespace on Sunday.

SingTel's executive VP for business, Bill Chang, told BT that the cost of building the ST-2 was approximately US$200 million.

The satellite will strengthen SingTel's coverage in the emerging markets of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

There is a strong demand for Direct-to-Home (DTH) services and broadcast solutions, as well as IP-based (Internet Protocol) solutions and VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) telephony in this region, Mr Chang noted.

'In fact, we have just signed a long-term multi-million dollar contract with Videocon, a leading Indian DTH service provider, to beam hundreds of TV channels to homes across India,' Mr Chang noted.

Giving details of the launch in Paris, Arianespace's chairman and CEO, Jean-Yves Le Gall, told BT that the SingTel joint venture with Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, ST-2 Satellite Ventures, has inked the launch deal with Arianespace.

The ST-2 will be launched by a giant Ariane 5 ECA rocket from the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.

The huge 5.1 tonne satellite will be built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan and will carry C and Ku band transponders. The ST-2 will have a 15 year lifetime in orbit.

SingTel's Mr Chang noted that SingTel will own more than 60 per cent of ST-2's capacity. He added that the average lifespan of a satellite is 11 to 13 years.

'In the industry, there are some satellites that are even used for up to 18 years. After ST-2 has been launched, we will continue to use ST-1 for another three years for services such as maritime communications.'

Arianespace's Mr Le Gall noted that the company is 'proud to serve SingTel and Chunghwa with whom we have maintained warm relations since the launch of ST-1 in 1998.'

Elaborating, he told BT, that having SingTel as a customer enhances the company's reputation in the region which provides around one third of the company's revenues.

'Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region for the company and with an endorsement from a customer like SingTel, we are confident that we will be able to attract more customers from the region,' he said.

'We do not sell launch vehicles, rather we sell launch services which includes all operations including insurance and financing. Even though we are not the cheapest solution available, customers find the total package attractive.'

Of the 10 launch deals signed by the company so far this year, three have been from Asia. Due to the lead time required to build the rockets, most of these launches will take place in the 2010-2011 timeframe.

Arianespace has won more than half of all commercial launch contracts open to competition worldwide in the past two years. This gives it a healthy order book from 27 customers.

Top Malaysian Students To Witness MEASAT Launch In Kazakhstan Monday

From http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=418257

KUALA LUMPUR, June 16 (Bernama) -- Fourteen top students from Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United Kingdom will get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness the launch of MEASAT Satellite System Sdn Bhd's communications satellite, Measat-3a, at Baikonur in Kazakhstan on Monday, June 22.

MEASAT is offering what is surely a dream-come-true trip for the mostly 16-year old students, which includes a stay in Moscow to commemorate the launch of the MEASAT-3a satellite, and learn more about advances in aerospace technology there.

This also forms part of Malaysia's premier satellite company's corporate social responsibility programme to "develop the next generation of technology leaders," said Farah Suhana Ahmad Sarji, the General Counsel for MEASAT.

Minister of Information Communication and Culture Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim will head the Malaysian delegation comprising officials, MEASAT and private sector representatives to witness the launch.

Farah told Bernama that the Malaysian students include Ahmad Ruiz Mohd Asri from SMK Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Lina Na'ilah Abdul Talip from SMKA Maahad Hamidiah in Kajang, Chandra Sekhar Kuppusamy from SMK Dato Penggawa Timur in Masai, Cliff Asher R Ongil from SM St Paul in Beaufort in Sabah and Edmund Lau Chen Min from Kuching High School.

This would be the company's fourth satellite after MEASAT 1 and 2 were launched from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guinea in January and November 1996 respectively while MEASAT 3 was launched in December 2006 from Baikonur.

The total project cost for the MEASAT-3a satellite is around US$165 million (RM550 million).

MEASAT's satellites have helped to boost Malaysia's satellite communication capacity and transmit sister company Astro's programmes to thousands of households in Malaysia.

It would also enable MEASAT the continued growth of its Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting and telecom business in Malaysia and elsewhere in Asia and the rest of the world. This will ultimately enable Astro customers to have access to a greater selection of programmes.

The MEASAT-3a satellite is already at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in final preparations for the launch.

The highlight of the trip would be the launch itself slotted for Monday, June 22 at 3.50 am local time at Baikonur (5.50 am in Kuala Lumpur).

MEASAT-3a was supposed to have been launched in August last year, but a overhead crane accident damaged it while it was being prepared for launch and had to be returned to Dulles for repair.

MEASAT-3a would increase the company's amount of satellite capacity significantly.

Besides this, the satellite will support the continued growth of MEASAT's fast-expanding broadcasting and telecommunications business.

Farah said that the students' itinerary for the launch includes a visit to Star City, Moscow's famous military research and space training facility where cosmonauts have been trained since the 1960's.

In Baikonur itself which is the world's largest space facility, the group would tour the Soyuz launch complex, visit the launcher assembly building vehicle where the Soyuz rockets are prepared for launch and the usually out-of-bounds rocket launch pad from which more than 400 vehicles have taken off into space.

They would also get to learn more about Yuri Gagarin's epic journey into space at the Yuri Gagarin Space Museum.

Gagarin was the first man in outer space and the first to orbit Earth in April 1961 in Vostok 1, the Russian space capsule.

GlobeCast to deliver Kaohsiung World Games

From http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/june/june208.php

GlobeCast will provide domestic and international broadcast delivery via satellite for all SD and HD feeds as well as an international broadcast booking centre for tape playout and SNG services for the upcoming World Games to be held from 16-26 July.

The world feed, which includes the pre-programme, opening and closing ceremonies and daily highlights, is available free-to-air to broadcasters worldwide via satellite distribution.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC)-sanctioned World Games aims to feature the diversity of sport. It showcases sports not featured at the Olympics such as snooker, aikido, field archery, boules, dragon boat racing, bodybuilding, wakeboarding, sumo, tug of war, lifesaving, Ultimate frisbee and DanceSport.

Hughes to Launch 100 Gbps High Throughput Satellite in 2012

From http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hughes-to-launch-100-gbps-high-throughput-satellite-in-2012

FOXTEL chief executive Kim Williams has called for a fourth and even fifth free-to-air television licence, saying his company would be a potential bidder if the business case showed it was worthwhile.

"Protecting players because of their seniority — and incumbent occupation of established oligopolies — is hardly the basis for policy development and future directions," Mr Williams told the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

"Why shouldn't a company like Foxtel or other have the opportunity to offer a fourth free-to-air network or a fifth over satellite, if we can make the business case work?"

Government policy has long limited free-to-air licences to the existing players — Seven, Nine and Ten — but the move to digital TV has increased the opportunity for new licences to be issued.

Asked if Foxtel was considering seeking a free-to-air TV licence, Mr Williams said his company "wasn't in the business of having a fourth network", but the company should make the decision, not regulators.

After Mr Williams' remarks, a spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy left open the possibility of a new licence in the next five years.

"The spectrum that will be freed up as a result of the digital television switch-over is in high demand," the spokesman said.

"The Government has said that it will review the demand for a fourth television licence prior to analog switch-off at the end of 2013."

But the push for the extra licences was attacked by industry group Free TV Australia.

"We didn't know Kim was such a fan of competition," chief executive Julie Flynn said. "Perhaps he should start in his own backyard."

The push for extra licences came with a suite of reforms Mr Williams hopes will be taken up by Senator Conroy as part of a new round of deregulation of the broadcasting sector.

He renewed his call for a "use it or lose it" approach to sports on the anti-siphoning list.

That would mean Foxtel would have the right to broadcast the 75 per cent of the 1300 events on the list that free-to-air TV has the rights to but does not exercise.

He argued that the change, would have "no losers", although it would significantly strengthen pay TV in its battle with free-to-air networks. Senator Conroy has previously indicated sympathy for the idea.

"The hundreds of sports events not broadcast by the terrestrial networks should come off the list — both free-to-air and subscription TV can then compete openly to acquire that sport for multi-channels equally. No preferment, just a fair contest," Mr Williams said.

The anti-siphoning rules will be subject to a review in the second half of the year, with the Government saying it is open to changes to the existing regime.

Ms Flynn challenged the need for changes to the anti-siphoning list.

"So much of what he (Mr Williams) says is about ways of rationalising forcing Australians to pay to watch sport on television," she said.

Hand Off Of IndoStar II / ProtoStar II Accomplished By Boeing

From http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=502215046

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has successfully managed the in-orbit handover of the IndoStar II/ProtoStar II commercial communications satellite to Bermuda-based ProtoStar Ltd.

Following successful in-orbit tests and confirmed readiness to enter service, the Boeing-built 601HP satellite will now begin providing direct-to-home (DTH) broadcasting and telecommunications services to the Asia-Pacific region. An International Launch Services Proton Breeze M rocket launched IndoStar II/ProtoStar II on May 16 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Positioned 22,300 miles above the Earth, the IndoStar II/ProtoStar II satellite will provide simultaneous operation of 32 transponders that deliver high-powered S- and Ku-band communications to consumer and small-to-medium-sized business markets throughout Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Taiwan. Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems built the IndoStar II/ProtoStar II satellite at its Satellite Development Center in El Segundo and operated the spacecraft during postlaunch satellite system deployments and in-orbit testing from the company's new, state-of-the-art Mission Control Center

Arianespace to launch ST-2 for Singapore and Taiwan

From PRESS RELEASE

Date Released: Tuesday, June 16, 2009

ST Electronics Announces Commission for SingTel of 11-Metre Antenna System at Seletar Earth Station

From http://en.acnnewswire.com/Article.Asp?Art_ID=1772&lang=EN

CommunicAsia, Singapore, June 16, 2009   -  (ACN Newswire)   -   ST Electronics' wholly-owned subsidiary, ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems), has successfully commissioned an 11 metre Ku-Band antenna system at SingTel's Seletar Earth Station for Communication System Monitoring (CSM) and Communication that carries commercial traffic on SingTel satellites. The areas of coverage are primarily India and South East Asia. SingTel will use the system to access its ST-2 satellite for the CSM functions and commercial traffic.

The system consists of an 11 metre Ku-band antenna, a Glass Reinforced Polyester equipment cabin, Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) amplifier and Low Noise Amplifier with redundancy, converters, fibre optic inter-facility links and Monitoring and Control (M&C) subsystem. The system offers SingTel additional capacity and capability to serve their customers internationally.

"ST Electronics has an extensive systems engineering and integration track record and has delivered a number of large scale earth station projects in the region. With this implementation of our systems for SingTel, we have once again proven our capabilities with a key ICT player in the region," said SEAH Moon Ming, President, ST Electronics.

ST Electronics won the project through a tender in the last quarter of 2008 amidst local and international competition.

About ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems)

Its subsidiary, ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems) is a premier supplier of very small aperture terminals and network solutions. Its customers include telecommunications service providers, corporate enterprises, financial institutions, defense, government agencies as well as the oil-and-gas industry. With its innovative products and solutions, the company enables its valuable customers in turn to provide high quality and value-added services to their end-users. ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited.

About ST Electronics

ST Electronics, the electronics arm of ST Engineering, delivers innovative system solutions to government, commercial, defence, and industrial customers worldwide. With presence in more than 30 cities in 20 countries, ST Electronics markets its solutions to more than 70 countries internationally. It specialises in the design, development and integration of advanced electronics and communications systems, such as broadband radio frequency and satellite communication, e-Government solutions, information communications technologies and IT, rail and traffic management, real-time command and control, modelling and simulation, interactive digital media, intelligent building management and information security. Please visit http://www.stee.stengg.com/.

Contact:

Magdalen Loh AVP/Head, Corporate Communications ST Electronics Tel: +65 6413 1788 / 9822 3321 Fax: +65 6484 8840 Email: magloh@stee.stengg.com

Global Coverage for Inmarsat BGAN X-Stream(TM) as Service Goes Live in Asia Pacific

oGLOBAL Utilizes SES Americom-New Skies Satellite for Troops in Afghanistan

From http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/06/17/4229575.htm

IoGlobal's new Asia 9 platform on the China beam of SES Americom-New Skies' NSS-11 satellite provides more than 70 Mbps of satellite-delivered streaming voice, data and video services to soldiers stationed in and around Kabul, Afghanistan. The solution expands on the growing, long-term relationship between IoGlobal and SES Americom-New Skies across three satellites and delivers a broad offering of mission-critical satellite-based services ranging from broadband to video streaming into the South Asian region.

"This latest agreement between IoGlobal and SES Americom-New Skies reinforces our service commitment to the Middle East and regions around the world, as the two companies deliver multiple SCPC, VSAT and DVB service platforms over our NSS-703, NSS-6, and NSS-11 spacecraft," said Deepak Mathur, Vice President of South Asia and the Middle East for SES Americom-New Skies. "IoGlobal and its team of dedicated professionals operate in extremely challenging environments and SES Americom-New Skies is proud to play an integral role in enabling IoGlobal to meet the vital communications needs of troops serving in Afghanistan."

Gilat to Provide Turnkey Satellite Communications Network for Thailand's Public Communications Agency, CAT

PETAH TIKVA, Israel, June 16, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) today announced it will provide CAT Telecom Public Co. Ltd. (CAT) with a Gilat SkyEdge II broadband satellite network to serve rural locations throughout Thailand. CAT is Thailand's state-owned public communications agency.

The turnkey VSAT networking solution, contracted by SCS-Loxley Consortium (Samart Communications Services) and Loxley Wireless Co. Ltd., includes equipment, installation, technical support and training. CAT will deploy Gilat SkyEdge II VSATs to provide rural citizens with telephony and broadband Internet access at public call offices nationwide as part of a Universal Service Obligation (USO).

"After evaluating several VSAT providers, we determined that Gilat provided the optimal combination of superior technology, qualified support and experience meeting USO obligations," said Thongyai Chanthanawan, SCS-Loxley Consortium Director. "By providing optimal bandwidth efficiency, Gilat's SkyEdge II platform will help ensure our deployment of the most cost-effective solution over the long term."

N. Ranganathan, Gilat Network Systems' RVP, Asia, said, "This is another example of Gilat's ability to bring dependable telephony and broadband Internet services to citizens in a cost-efficient manner, regardless of geographic location. We will apply our innovation and experience to help CAT improve the quality of life for citizens in Thailand's rural areas."

Gilat's SkyEdge II is a multi-service platform enabling the delivery of high-quality voice, broadband data and video services for diverse environments including enterprises, rural networks, cellular backhaul and government network applications. SkyEdge II is a standards-based system using DVB-S2 and DVB-RCS. With better efficiencies and full adaptivity for both the inbound and outbound channels, it provides higher performance that serves the growing requirements of end-users. Gilat's diverse portfolio of SkyEdge II VSATs are all supported by a unified platform, offering service providers the most suitable product for their application needs as well as the flexibility to evolve their networks.

About CAT Telecom Public Co. Ltd.

In 2003, CAT was corporatized from the Communications Authority of Thailand. For more information, please visit http://www.cattelecom.com/.

About Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.

Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT) is a leading provider of products and services for satellite-based communications networks. The Company operates under three business units: (i) Gilat Network Systems, a provider of network systems and associated professional services to service providers and operators worldwide; (ii) Spacenet Inc., a provider of managed services in North America to the business and government segments; and (iii) Spacenet Rural Communications, a provider of rural telephony and Internet access solutions to remote areas primarily in Latin America.

Gilat was founded in 1987 and has shipped over 750,000 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) to more than 85 countries across six continents. Gilat's headquarters is located in Petah Tikva, Israel. The Company has 16 sales and service offices worldwide. Gilat markets a full line of high-performance VSATs under the SkyEdge and SkyEdge II Product Family.

The Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5848

Certain statements made herein that are not historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gilat to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, inability to maintain market acceptance to Gilat's products, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, rapid changes in the market for Gilat's products, loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition, introduction of competing products by other companies, inability to manage growth and expansion, loss of key OEM partners, inability to attract and retain qualified personnel, inability to protect the Company's proprietary technology and risks associated with Gilat's international operations and its location in Israel. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties associated with Gilat's business, reference is made to Gilat's reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

CONTACT: Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. Media Contact: Kim Kelly +972-3-925-2406 Kimk@gilat.com

Expand Networks Selected by IPSTAR for Optimized Satellite Managed Service Offering

From http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25640639-15306,00.html

KUALA LUMPUR: Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd’s Measat-3a satellite is now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in final preparation for the launch on June 22.

Measat said in a statement the satellite, its fourth, was manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corp of Dulles, US, and was scheduled for launch on a Zenit 3-SLB Landlaunch launch vehicle at 3.50am local time (5.50am KL time).

It said the satellite would add 12 Ku-Band and 12 C-Band transponders to its fleet, increasing by 50% the amount of satellite capacity at the company’s prime 91.50E orbital hot slot.

“With Ku-Band coverage of Malaysia and Indonesia and a C-Band beam that reaches over 110 countries representing 70% of the world’s population, the satellite will support the continued growth of the company’s broadcasting and telecommunications business,” it said. — Bernama

Astro's first quarter profit rises to RM69m

Kuala Lumpur: Astro All Asia Networks Plc posted a higher pre-tax profit of RM69.824 million for its first quarter ended April 30, 2009 as compared with the RM38.692 million it posted previously.

The pay-television operator, which added 82,000 residential customers during the quarter, also saw revenue rise by six percent to RM751.9 million from RM709.86 million amid a steady increase in demand for television services.

Radio revenue was marginally lower than in the same period of the previous year despite considerable pressure on airtime sales from challenging economic conditions, it said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia, here, Friday.

In India, Sun Direct TV, the joint venture company in which the group has a 20 percent stake, also continued to report strong growth in subscriber numbers with over 3.2 million subscribers activated since its launch in December 2007.

Meanwhile, Measat Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd's Measat-3a satellite is now at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in final preparations for the launch on June 22.

In a statement here Friday, Measat said the satellite, its fourth, was manufactured by Orbital Sciences Corp of Dulles, US, and was scheduled for launch on a Zenit 3-SLB Landlaunch launch vehicle at 3.50am local time (5.50am KL time).

It said the satellite would add an additional 12 Ku-Band and 12 C-Band transponders to its fleet, increasing by 50 percent the amount of satellite capacity at the company's prime 91.50E orbital hot slot.

"With Ku-Band coverage of Malaysia and Indonesia and a C-Band beam that reaches over 110 countries representing 70 percent of the world's population, the satellite will support the continued growth of the company's broadcasting and telecommunications business," it said.-Bernama

Astro Satellite TV 101

From http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/14/tvnradio/4109787&sec=tvnradio