Thread: Satellite News May 2010

Top TV makes booming entrance
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Local satellite TV newcomer Top TV has made an explosive entrance into the market, selling out its entire stock rack on Saturday.
Parent company On Digital Media (ODM) says all 50 000 decoders flew out of shops on the first day, leaving the company scrambling to bring in additional stock to serve the market. “We never expected this kind of response,” says the company's publicity manager, Melinda Connor.

She says the company is now under pressure to bring in additional stock and boost its call centre capacity, a process which is now under way. Connor says the company has ordered new stock and it should arrive later this week.

Connor adds that the call centre staff are also under pressure. “We have 30 agents working the call centre. We expected a lot of calls over the weekend, but ended up passing through 1 000 calls every hour. We are obviously pleased with the response, but we are worried that customers are not getting through to the call centre,” she explains.

Last week, ODM's CEO, Vino Govender, explained the company would bring in 50 000 decoders for its first run, which started at the weekend. It was going to bring in an additional 120 000 by June, depending on the market response.

However, the second decoder order has been ramped up to fill demand. “We have let customers who have ordered know that there will be additional stock soon. We are also looking into regional figures to see if there is enough support and installation staff in each region,” adds Connor.


ODM's business plan is well on its way to generating the 500 000 subscribers it needs over the next few months to make the company a success. “That number will make our business work, but what we really want is the 5.5 million available households,” said Govender.

The company's entrance has sparked something of a mini price war in the market, which is only expected to escalate.

MultiChoice has already responded with its own R99 offering to counter Top TV's market entrance. It has also made a play into IPTV and mobile TV. According to the company's latest interim results figures, the DSTV platform sports around 2.5 million subscribers.

There are still two other satellite providers expected to hit the market soon. Super5Media has been quietly preparing for its debut, and this is expected to happen before the end of the year.

Religious-themed satellite provider Walking on Water is also expected to show face at some point; however, licensing troubles have stymied its route to market. These new providers will likely enter the market with competitive pricing, which will probably be countered again by MultiChoice

US satellite on potential collision course
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A giant US communications satellite, probably hit by a solar flare on April 5, is drifting out of control and yet still beaming its powerful signals to the Earth below. More than 150,000 telemetry messages have been sent to try and ‘wake’ the satellite up. They have had zero affect.

The satellite, Intelsat’s Galaxy 15 craft, should be operating from 133 deg West broadcasting TV programmes to cable head-ends in the USA. The problem is the satellite is not communicating with its ground controllers following an April 5 “anomaly” that its builder Orbital Sciences thinks may be related to a massive Solar Flare that erupted on April 5.

The drift is steady and the craft not in any way tumbling. However, if the drift remains uncontrolled it will enter SES World Skies ‘airspace’ at 131 deg East, and affect – and threaten – AMC-11’s C-band transmissions. SES World Skies and Intelsat officials have held regular meetings since April 5 to keep each other informed and aware of the potential threat. Rob Bednarek, CEO at SES World Skies, told Space News, a specialist trade publication, that cooperation had been good. “We all realize that we could be in the same position tomorrow. We are neighbors in space.”

In three weeks time, according to current estimates, on May 23 the errant satellite will encroach on AMC-11’s orbital position and (if it continues on its current trajectory) exit on about June 7. SES World Skies will move its own satellite out of the way of Galaxy 15, probably to a marginally higher orbit, while allowing G-15 to slip safely by.

However, yesterday (May 3) Intelsat was scheduled to try one last attempt to regain control by sending a much more powerful signal up to the satellite. But experts say this attempt will not be repeated because of the risk of harming other craft in the vicinity.

If this attempt fails then likely the craft will continue its drift across the USA, passing other Galaxy satellites (G-13 at 127 deg W on July 13, G-14 at 125 deg W and G-18 at 123 deg W about mid-August). In time it will naturally drift towards a libration point, that position between the Earth and the Moon where the gravitational pull of both objects are equal and remain in that position for ever.

These two libration points at 105 deg West and 75 deg East contain, between them, around 160 dead satellites. G-15 will probably end up at 105 deg West, provided the other traffic in the sky gets out of the way.

Thai Unrest has Thaicom Caught in the Middle
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PARIS — Satellite fleet operator Thaicom of Thailand says it is negotiating a delicate path between the Thai government, which has forced the company to shut down broadcasts that support a massive Thai protest movement; and the protesters themselves, who have occupied Thaicom ground facilities and clashed with police there.

Seeking to reassure the government that it is complying with its orders, Thaicom on April 29 issued a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand saying it has done its best to shut down People Channel Television (PCT) despite difficulties resulting from the fact that PCT, as the customer of a Thaicom customer, has no direct relationship with Thaicom.

In its statement, Thaicom says it asked its customer carrying PCT to stop the broadcasts in early April. In response to a Thai government order, Thaicom began broadcasting its own signal to jam PCT C-band programming on April 7.

But two days later, the government learned that PCT broadcasts had restarted, this time in Ku-band, on broadcasts from another Thaicom customer outside Thailand. Thaicom said it asked its customer to remove PCT from the program lineup, which the customer apparently refused to do. Thaicom says it resorted to encrypting the PTV broadcasts so that they could not be received in Thailand.

Thaicom threatened its customer carrying the PCT programming with a complete shutdown of the C- and Ku-band capacity the customer was leasing, and on April 23 the customer stopped the PCT transmissions.

Hoping to head off any government threats to revoke its operating license, Thaicom is asking Thai authorities to recognize the complexity of the situation. Thaicom is following the government’s orders even though doing so “may endanger the company’s employees and assets” as demonstrators have occupied the company’s Lad Lem Kaew and Kaerai ground stations and demanded that the banned broadcasts continue.

“[T]here was a clash between the demonstrators and security officials” at the Lad Lem Kaew facility, and demonstrators continue to occupy the Kaerai site, Thaicom says.

Educational Television Launched
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TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The National Education Ministry in collaboration with PT Global Mediacom, has launched TV Citra Indonesia Terampil, a satellite television broadcasting educational programs. “The television will be broadcasted to 1.000 points, especially in remote areas,” said Education Minister Muhammad Nuh at a press conference after a National Education Day event yesterday at the Education Ministry in Jakarta.

According to the Minister, the television broadcast is intended for remote areas because they are normally inaccessible by conventional transportation. As such, the satellite technology is expected to be an alternative for students’ learning process.

“The television is Global Mediacom’s contribution to the education sector,” Nuh said, adding that the ministry did not spend anything for the project. “All is free, from the equipment fee, program and transmission costs,” Nuh said.

TV Citra Indonesia started airing yesterday on Indovision’s Channel 845 via the Indostar satellite. "Channel 845 represents August 1945," said Rudy Tanoesoedibjo, CEO Media Nusantara Citra, during the MoU signing with the Education Minister.

RAI to air Italian cup final in 3D, and relaunch TV offer
From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Italian public broadcaster RAI has teamed up with The Space Cinema Circuit and Infront Italy for the first 3D transmission of a sports event in Italy.

On May 5th, RAI will be broadcasting the Italian Cup Final, played between Roma and Inter, in 3D. The signal will be encrypted and will only be received in 8 cinemas belonging to the Space Cinema Network in Rome, Milan and Parma. The satellite transmission will be ensured by the Atlantic Bird 3 satellite (5 degrees West).

RAI is also preparing for a relaunch its TV offer and to redesign its logos on May 18th, the date of the partial ASO in Lombardy, Eastern Piedmont, Parma and Piacenza.

Besides Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Rai 4, Rai News, Rai Storia, Rai Sport 1, the line-up will also include Rai Movie (previously RaiSat Cinema), Rai Yoyo (previously RaiSat Yoyo, for pre-school children), Rai Gulp (for boys), Rai Sport 2 and Rai HD (launching during the World Cup) and Rai 5 (cultural channel, including documentaries, features and magazines). After the World Cup, the Rai HD channel will air sports, movies and TV series in High Definition.

RAI Deputy Director, Giancarlo Leone, does not exclude the possibility of RAI launching a pay-TV offer, but adds that such a decision must be made and included in the new business plan to be approved by the Board of Directors.

Ziggo backs Pirate Bay

Dutch ISP Ziggo, the country?s largest, is facing court action for its refusal to block subscriber access to Swedish BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay. It insists that it?s simply a conduit to the Internet and shouldn?t be forced to filter the results, especially considering there?s no legal basis for such a request. "We are simply a channel," said a spokesman for the telco. "We give people access to the Internet and support an open Internet."

Anti-piracy organisation Stichting Brein counters that it does have a legal basis for demanding that copyright infringing websites be filtered. It says that although the "Internet is public but there is no right of access to an illegal site."

Astra 3-D demo channel today officially launched 04.05.2010

Today, as the Anga Fair in Cologne, Germany opened, start the new 3D demo channel of SES Astra officially broadcasting. Under the name Astra 3D, this 3D demo channel on the satellite at 23.5 degrees east Astra3 receive. SES Astra operates in this 3D-channel closely with electronics manufacturer Samsung.

Also after the close of the Anga stock market remains the 3D channel is available. The canal, several 3D demo films. These will include other sports, music and entertainment demo movies. Astra 3-demoknaal is available via the Astra 1E satellite. When the Astra 3B satellite at 23.5 degrees east is operational, this 3D demo channel moved to the new satellite.

The frequency is 11.778 GHz which is broadcast V - 27500-9 / 10 - DVB-S2 QPSK.

Magio TV launches with Spacecom
04 May 10 -

Slovak Telekom has made its Magio TV service available via DTH using Spacecom’s Amos-3 satellite.

Slovak Telekom already operates Magio TV via IPTV and is using Amos-3 to ensure the service is available countrywide. It joins Hungary’s T-Home SatTV, Romania’s Boom and Israel’s Yes on Spacecom’s Amos constellation.