11/07/02

Getting to the end of the week and things are fairly quiet. As expected Sky NZ encrypted those signals that were FTA yesterday. I have supplied Lyngsat with an update on the Sky services. There should be some Tech Documents appearing on the site soon including a FAQ about Asia Pacific Region satellite tv.

B3, Globecast and Aurora are all up in strength for some reason

From my Emails & ICQ

Nothing to report!

From the Dish

PAS 8 166E 3860 H The test card has left , PIDs 460/461.It's occasional feeds on PIDs 450/451.

Optus B1 160E 12643 H "ABC TV Northern" has replaced ABC TV South, Fta, PIDs 2308/2309. (Craigs comment, this could spell the end of the B1, Abc Northern transmission on 12260V )

ST 1 88E 3632 V "CCR 1" has left .
ST 1 88E 3632 V "Savoir Knowledge Channel" is in Fta again.

Thaicom 3 78.5E 3640 H "Jame-Jam TV Network 3" has left , replaced by a test card.

NEWS

Piracy Crackdown Continues

From Australian Subscription Television & Radio Association

The Victoria Police successfully executed search warrants on two Ballarat premises yesterday after occupants were believed to be engaged in illegal subscription television pirate activity.

Two arrests have already resulted from yesterday's raid and police confiscated a significant amount of equipment relating to pirate activity. Additional charges are likely to follow.

Debra Richards, Executive Director of the Australian Subscription Television & Radio Association (ASTRA), said. "The Subscription Television industry is actively assisting police to combat piracy. Yesterday's result demonstrates the resolve of the industry or fight this illegal activity."

"Industry members are working co-operatively through ASTRA to address a problem that costs millions of dollars in lost revenue and resources that would otherwise be used to grow the Australian Television and Production Industries. The real victims here are the consumers who are being hoodwinked into being involved in a criminal activity, often paying more than they would otherwise do for a legitimate service." Ms Richards said.

BACKGROUND

*Piracy occurs when a viewer or end user gains access to a Subscription Television Service without payment to the relevant subscription television provider. Use the pirate smart cards is a crime.

*Since it's inception in Australia in 1995, the Subscription Television has invested $8 billion in people, infrastructure, technology and programming and now directly employs over 3,500 people ranging from program makers and advanced IT professionals to call centre staff and sales people. Thousands of others are indirectly employed in related industries.

*Piracy undermines this contribution, costing the subscription television industry millions of dollars in lost revenue each year.

*Piracy is a crime - incurring civil and criminal penalties. Criminal penalties can reach $60,500 in fines and imprisonment for up to five years.

Sky's rising dollar bonus

From http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1259940a1865,FF.html

Sky Television looks set to be a major beneficiary of the rise in the dollar as its programming costs should drop sharply from next year.

This should help the company - which has mostly traded in the red since setting up in 1987 - report its first solid profit in two years, some analysts believe.

Remarks by Sky chairman Tom Mockridge that the country's only national integrated pay-TV company would break even in two years were greeted with some cynicism earlier this year.

Since then the New Zealand dollar and subscriber numbers have risen more sharply than expected and in a detailed study of the company, ABN Amro reckons Sky's profitability is about to lift.

A hint of Sky's improving fortunes came at the last half year when it reported a better than expected loss of $13.9 million, following a $42.3m loss in the 12 months to June last year.

ABN Amro reckons Sky will report a loss of $32.3m for the current year to June 30 when it reports in September. It forecasts the loss will fall to $5.58m next year and should turn to the black in two years with a solid profit of $31.8m.

Becoming profitable will be an important milestone for a company that has been reinvesting all spare money in growing business since setting up. Listed on the sharemarket 10 years later, Sky made token profits in 1997 and 1998, before returning to losses, and has never paid a dividend.

It could also be significant for its parent, Independent Newspapers, publishers of the Sunday Star-Times, which owns 66%. INL has been using Sky's tax losses to boost bottom line profits. These slashed $12m from INL's tax bill for the six months to December 31.

INL plans to repay Sky this money when its subsidiary becomes profitable. However, analysts say INL might be tempted to make a full takeover bid. This would ease the need for INL to repay Sky the money it owes Sky's minority shareholders who are unable to use the company's sizeable tax losses.

As a first step INL might negotiate to buy the 12.1% stake held by Telecom. Telecom paid $4.12 a share, then well ahead of market prices.

Telecom might be wishing it could have sold as recently as June 20 when Sky TV shares were fetching $4.72. Since then the price has slipped to close at $4.30 on Friday, mainly due to changes in investor sentiment thanks to accounting scandals and other uncertainties on Wall Street.

Many analysts can't see why Telecom retains stakes in Sky and INL as both companies are effectively controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the relatively small stakes give little say in the running of the companies.

Telecom CEO Theresa Gattung, in an interview with Infotech Weekly last month, said Telecom bought into INL when Sky had been the real target. It had subsequently bought into Sky.

Asked if Telecom still needed these shareholdings, Gattung said: "We don't have a religion on this. There's always a possibility we might divest." Asked if there were any gains to be made from the INL stake, she said this depended on INL strategies.

She pointed out Sky and Telecom bundle services to about 40,000 customers, with Xtra providing the TV email service. "Beyond that I'm not sure how the relationship will pan out," she said.

Under the takeover code, INL can't simply buy the Telecom stake but would have to bid for the whole company. However, Telecom could sell its Sky shares at a big discount to INL - which would then extend the offer to all Sky shareholders. If the deal was substantially lower than Sky's market price, the remaining 22% of Sky shareholders wouldn't accept.

A similar takeover strategy is being mounted in the bid by Eric Watson's Logan Corporation to buy out Pacific Retail's minority shareholders. Other Telecom shareholders, however, would be less than happy if its Sky shares were sold well below market prices.

Sky, which recently celebrated reaching 500,000 subscribers, is in an immensely strong position in this country as the dominant provider of pay-TV with 37% of households linked to its UHF transmissions or direct digital broadcasts. The digital systems seem particularly well poised for growth due to further penetration and interactive services, such as online betting.

ABN Amro says that while Sky is gaining from the stronger dollar, the full benefits are not being felt. It estimates the company bought forward cover for its US dollar exposure for this calendar year at US43-44c. However, ABN Amro says what matters more is the assumption the New Zealand dollar will rise further, substantially increasing Sky's purchasing power for overseas programmes. Every 1c rise in the US-NZ dollar exchange rate improves Sky's earnings by $2.2m-2.3m, ABN Amro says.

Based on improving subscriber numbers and the currency benefits, ABN Amro has upgraded its recommendation on Sky from a reduce to a hold and values it at $5.03.

JB Were recommends Sky as an accumulate, valuing it at $4.90 though recommends clients take an indirect investment by buying shares in parent INL. Macquarie Research says Sky continues to do better than the market and its internal forecasts are expecting. It says Sky TV will outperform the NZSE Top 40 index in the short and long-term, and values it at $4.66.

INL closed on Friday at $3.75.

MTV India expects to go digital by end-July


(Posted on 10 July 2002 7:00 pm)

From indiantelevision.com

Joining the trend among most channels to switch from an analog feed, music channel MTV is preparing to go digital by end-July.

Sanjeev Hiremath, vice-president, network development, South Asia, licensing and merchandising, said till the full transition to digital was carried through, the channel would be operating a dual illumination feed, continuing the analog feed on the PAS 10 satellite.

Hiremath said that just over 1,500 Philips Cryptowork boxes had been seeded so far and that he expected to seed a total of 4,000 set tops by the time the channel switched to a completely digital feed by the end of July. Set tops were being supplied to cable operators at a subsidised rate of Rs 12,000 per box, Hiremath said.

Aside from improved transmission quality, a digital feed occupies less transponder space, which makes it far easier to introduce new channels when required, Hiremath said. Will India finally get to see Viacom channels VH1 and the like in the not too distant future? With the introduction of conditional access systems (CAS) around the corner, the possibilities can only increase.

Current Technical Specifications

Analog feed:
Satellite: Panamsat PAS-10
Transponder: 7C
Downlink Polarisation: Horizontal
Downlink Frequency: 4034 MHz

Digital feed:

Satellite: Panamsat PAS-10
Transponder: 11C
Downlink Polarisation: Horizontal
Downlink Frequency: 4154 MHz

Technical Specifications Post Digitalisation
Satellite: Panamsat PAS-10
Transponder: 7C
Downlink Polarisation: Horizontal
Downlink Frequency: 4034 MHz

(Craigs comment, they are already transmitting in Digital, FTA in the mux on 4154 H and Lyngsat lists it as Power VU!)

10/07/02

Sky NZ on Optus B1, 12608V has a few channels running FTA at the moment, of interest Tv3 and Tv4 are not FTA there usually they are when this transponder goes fta occasionally. ENG 69 channel is testing The Disney channel (Australian version) could it be Sky plan to add this channel soon? Could it also be why Sky put their prices up last month?

Not much news about today.

This months Satfacts will have a step by step set of instructions for converting ANY (any!) Nokia to DVB2000 including hardware mods and software instructions.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Me

Disney Channel testing on Sky NZ

From the Dish

No Lyngsat update in my mail

Optus B1 160E 12608 V "various Sky NZ FTA" Sr 22500, Fec 3/4

NEWS

TV rage blossoms as rainfall freezes Sky sports action

From http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=2051224

Sky subscribers are fuming at signal failures causing breaks at crucial moments in sports matches and movies.

The rain fade problem affecting the digital service causes the satellite signal to "drop out" temporarily, making the television picture freeze or cut out completely.

One customer told the Herald he experienced rain fade often and it seemed to happen at the worst possible moments, such as during cricketer Scott Styris' maiden test century against the West Indies.

"Imagine my displeasure when on the very ball, when he was about to make the necessary runs ... the screen froze on the picture of the bowler about to release the ball. The next shot was of Stephen Fleming's disembodied applause, with his hands resembling a rainbow illusion and his smile going every which way."

Numerous other frustrated subscribers, from Auckland, Whangarei, Wellington and Christchurch, have told of losing their signal during the Soccer World Cup.

Satellite technology experts say rain fade occurs when the digital signal cannot penetrate rain or rain-filled clouds.

Auckland has received 74mm of rain so far this month. The average rainfall for July is 100mm, according to the MetService.

More rain is expected, and heavy downfalls forecast for the weekend could disrupt Saturday's Tri Nations match between New Zealand and Australia for some viewers.

Rain fade can cause signal disruption for a few seconds to several minutes, although the Herald heard from viewers who had lost the signal for a day or more.

Tony Dunnett, technical co-ordinator for Tisco in Auckland, said the problem could be reduced by installing satellite dishes between 76cm and 80cm wide.

Standard domestic dishes used by Sky in Auckland are 60cm wide.

Sky subscribers north of Auckland and in the west of the South Island have 76cm dishes because they are on the edges of the satellite "beam" covering New Zealand.

As the seemingly constant rain in Auckland has played havoc with Sky's digital service, some customers believe the network should compensate them for an incomplete service.

But Sky's contract with customers says the network will credit accounts only if the service is blocked for more than 24 hours.

Sky spokesman Tony O'Brien said rain fade was a phenomenon common to satellite-delivered services around the world. Digital service was "either perfect or nothing".

If the signal did not "self-correct", viewers should reboot their decoder by switching the power off and then on again, said Mr O'Brien.

Some customers had found their satellite dishes had moved during the bad weather, which had led to more rain fade than usual.

Sky technicians realigned the dishes, which should sit at 45 degrees, when customers reported problems to the network, he said.

He did not think people would want bigger dishes on their homes.

(Craigs comment, That last line is of interest the general public knows nothing about satellite reception they would expect to pay their money for a system that gives them the service they are paying for at an acceptable quality. This includes the dish for the Sky service being suitable for the purpose intended. I believe the NZ consumer goods act says exactly that.)

Pay TV access still a concern

From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/09/1026185042484.html

Pay television aspirants have expressed fears that the proposed $1.3 billion content accord between Foxtel and Optus will proceed without any legislative protection, leaving them powerless if denied access to the cable network.

Media and entertainment companies repeated concerns that undertakings by Foxtel would offer inadequate legal recourse for third parties in the event of an access dispute.

The apprehension among industry figures surfaced after sketchy details of Foxtel's undertakings were leaked, casting doubt over whether Seven Network, Network Ten and John Fairfax Holdings would be granted access to Foxtel content.

It is believed that Ten has questioned the adequacy of undertakings to prevent Foxtel shareholder Telstra from controlling the gateway into homes for future interactive services.

Seven has also questioned their effectiveness. A spokesman said: "Any undertakings on access by Foxtel and its partners do not address many of the core issues identified by the ACCC, and would represent only a small concession by the partners."

Fairfax is also pushing for a legislated access regime, arguing that undertakings have uncertain legal weight.

Foxtel presented the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with a set of legally enforceable undertakings last Friday, two weeks after the regulator blocked Foxtel's proposal to take on $600 million in Optus programming liabilities.

The ACCC identified four key areas in which the merger breached the Trade Practices Act, including reducing competition in the purchase and supply of pay TV content, the supply of pay TV services, and access to Foxtel's network.

The Foxtel partners opted to provide the undertakings under section 87 of the Trade Practices Act, which allows a transaction in breach of the act to proceed.

The undertakings reportedly include guarantees to provide content to regional broadband companies, including Neighbourhood Cable and TransACT, but not for media rivals such as Fairfax, Seven and Ten.

Foxtel has apparently agreed to invest more than $500 million to convert its network to digital in the second half of next year and provide a transparent pricing structure covering access to this platform.

Neighbourhood Cable has pressed for a meeting with Foxtel to seek more information on the undertakings, saying it has not been briefed in any detail.

"Having access at the right commercial arrangements is important, not just having access," said Fred Grossman, the cable company's chief operating officer.

ACCC mergers and acquisitions commissioner Ross Jones said the undertakings would be subjected to market scrutiny in coming weeks after a consultation period with Foxtel.

"There's no point in us going out into the market with undertakings that we think are useless, because that is just a waste of everyone's time," he said. "Whether or not they are comprehensible is a different thing."

If the transaction is approved, the ACCC will have the power to take legal action over breaches of the undertakings.

BBC wins licence to show 27 digital channels

From http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j42240514&w=1

The BBC was handed the task of salvaging Government plans to convert the country to digital television yesterday after it was awarded the three licences left vacant after the collapse of ITV Digital.

Under a 12-year deal announced by the Independent Television Commission, a consortium led by the corporation and BSkyB was given the go-ahead to launch its new digital terrestrial service this autumn.

It means viewers will get 27 digital free-to-view channels, plus radio and interactive services, through an existing aerial. But they will need to buy a set-top box costing about £100.

Greg Dyke, the BBC's director-general, said the decision to award the licences to the corporation, rather than a rival bid from ITV and Channel 4, would mean a fresh start for digital terrestrial television.

The decision was welcomed by Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, who hopes it will boost take-up of digital television.

The Government aims to switch off the traditional analogue signal by 2010 but only if 95 per cent of homes have access to digital. That compares with 40 per cent of households who have digital at present.

However the ruling was criticised by commercial broadcasters who denounced the corporation's decision to join forces with BSkyB as a cynical "digital land-grab".

The licences were put out to tender in March after ITV Digital was forced into administration amid losses of more than £1 billion.

In a statement yesterday the ITC, the regulator in charge of awarding the licences, said it believed the bid by the BBC coalition - which includes the transmission business Crown Castle - was best suited to promoting digital terrestrial television as an alternative to satellite or cable.

Sir Robin Biggam, the commission's chairman, said: "The Commission believes that the BBC-Crown Castle application is the most likely to ensure the viability of digital terrestrial television.

"It will target those viewers who have not been so far attracted by digital TV and will help facilitate the move towards digital switchover."

Under the BBC consortium, called Free To View, viewers will receive the five current analogue channels - BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 - plus several digital services including CNN, ITV2, BBC4, and the children's channels CBeebies and CBBC.

They will also get three Sky channels: Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel.

The corporation said it will spend £3.5 billion of licence fee payers' money on the new service over the next 12 years, including more than £5 million a year on marketing.

However Mr Dyke admitted it faced an uphill struggle persuading viewers to adopt the new service following the high profile demise of ITV Digital. He said: "This is a fresh start for digital television in the UK and the best outcome for viewers."

The Digital Terrestrial Alliance, the name of the unsuccessful ITV/ Channel 4 bid, had proposed allowing viewers the option of a limited selection of pay-television channels as well as the free-to-view service.

A spokesman for the alliance said it "bitterly disappointed" that the bid had failed, adding: "We remain convinced that digital customers want the option of a pay TV upgrade."

9/07/02

Livechat in the chatroom 9pm NZ and 8.30 Syd onwards (or earlier)

BBC World still alive and FTA on Pas 2 3744V, I asked Lyngsat about this mistake and he had to urgently leave on icq. Maybe he got more than a few messages about it. ABC Asia Pacific is now also in the PAS 8 Satlink mux beamed at N.E Asia not sure about the reason for this.

Good to see plenty of Emails from the readers today.

Tour De France, is FTA on RFO Tempo on I701 and also FTA

From my Emails & ICQ

From Siamglobal

VERIFICATION RE BBC PAS 2 V

SHOULD THERE BE THE SLIGHTEST DOUBT RE RECEPTION OF BBC WORLD ON PAS 2 V THEN PLSE HAVE GEORGE THE OTHER THAI RESIDENT APSATTER CHECK..

IT IS INDEED THERE WITH A SIGNAL STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE !

(Craigs comment, stronger than ever before? that sounds like it may have been switched off for a short time and the power increased?)

From Chris Pickstock

RE: Pas 2 BBC World

9.00 pm SA time

With reference to todays update of Apsattv.com, I've just checked Pas 2 and find BBC World and the test cards are still FTA on 3743 V. Perhaps Lyngsat are wrong.

Chris

From Tony

Dear Craig,Its still there BBC World on Pas 2 3744V
FTA on my dish in Yogyakarta Indonesia,

Yours Tony.

From Peter Clark

New mux on Palapa C2, 4040H

I am located on the NE Coast of the NT. Signal strength here is good - about
70%. Video quality on Metro is excellent but awful on Quick Channel - the best
way I can describe it is that the contrast is turned up way too high, and other
problems.

From Bassett

Palapa 4040, shows no signal and does not load, at Bassettville,,

North Coast NSW

From Andrew Harrison

New mux on Palapa C2, 4040H

loads no problems here in Vila, (169E 15S) 4 channels
@20% quality on the satcruiser -3.7 mesh dish.

From Megb1968

Palapa 4040, shows no signal in Perth. Dish 3.0 m dish.

From MCHUNG

Dear Sir,

There's two porn channels at ST1 3582H12860 but the two channels
has no name, from 10.30pm(malaysian time) to 6a.m its bare all.

Regards,
Mchung

(Craigs comment, Bare all sounds good ;-) hopefully it dosn't require the special mosaic decoder!)

From the Dish

Intelsat 701 180E 10975 H "Loft Story" has left .

PAS 2 169E 3744 V "BBC World" and the test cards are still on , Fta, Sr 21800, Fec3/4.
PAS 2 169E 3901 H "BBC World" has not started, still only a test card.
PAS 2 169E 4165 VAll the test cards have left .

PAS 8 166E 3860 H The test card on , PIDs 460/461, is now encrypted.
PAS 8 166E 3880 V "ABS-CBN Music Radio WRR 101.9" is now encrypted.
PAS 8 166E 12366 H "ABC Asia Pacific" has started, Fta, SID 4, PIDs 1025/1026.

ST 1 88E 3582 H "Super TV" has started, Viaccess 1 & Nagravision, PIDs 34/35.
ST 1 88E 3632 V "MusicCountry" has started, Fta, PIDs 6193/6177, 06-17 HKT.
ST 1 88E 3632 V "Savoir Knowledge Channel" is encrypted again.

NEWS

Dishes alienate residents

From http://www.mytown.co.nz

Angry Albany (Auckland , NZ) residents say satellite dishes in their backyard blatantly breach resource consent conditions - but council has turned a blind eye.

Last week Shore News revealed council had decided to ignore residents when it approved six extra dishes to be erected on the Unity Drive site.

The news was the final blow for neighbouring residents who have been fighting a paper war against the three existing dishes since 1996.

The first satellites were also installed without anyone being told.

Over the last six years residents have uncovered a raft of discrepancies between what the satellite company had permission to do and what it did.

Consent for the first three satellites was granted to Clear in 1996.

The company got permission to erect three dishes “having diameters of 13m facing north and angled at 47 degrees”.

When installed the dishes were nearly two metres wider than agreed, they weren’t all angled at 47 degrees and at least one points not north, but in a westerly direction towards nearby homes.

Clear was required to submit a radio frequency report within three months of operation and to ensure that radio frequency levels meet New Zealand standards.

But Rob Andrews, North Shore City’s major projects team leader, admits that council has never received any reports and hasn’t chased them up.

He says council hasn’t insisted on the reports because it is confident the satellite emissions are within agreed levels.

Clear’s site plan includes specifications for extensive planting of a “buffer” zone between the satellite plant and residential properties.

John Halford, whose property backs onto the planting, says the trees are not the size or type agreed to, and the area has become so overgrown he found marijuana growing there.

The plan also includes planting in a strip which runs up to Albany Highway.

No trees have ever been planted there but council repaid Clear’s landscaping bond back in 1999.

Liz Thaisen is another resident sick of being stone-walled by council, and she has arranged a residents meeting with Councillor Margaret Miles to discuss the issue.

Mrs Miles has agreed to investigate the residents’ claims and is digging out paper work relating to the satellites, including the current application by new operators Stratos New Zealand.

ACCC considering new Foxtel submission

From http://www.egoli.com.au/egoli_frame.asp?Frame=NewsandViews&File=22523.asp

According to overnight newswires, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is considering a revised submission from Telstra Corporation (TLS) and SingTel’s (SGT) Optus unit seeking approval for a pay-tv programming deal.

Last month the ACCC knocked back a proposal for Foxtel to take over programming costs for Optus pay-TV, which would essentially see all pay-TV content distributed by Foxtel. In addition, Telstra was looking to bundle its Foxtel offerings with its telephone services.

?They presented a major submission to us which they believed addressed the issues that we had raised. We are now having a look at that submission,” said an ACCC spokeswoman.

In June Professor Allan Fels outlined four main areas of concern relating to: (1) the acquisition of content; (2) the likely dominance of the Foxtel distribution network; (3) the supply of pay TV services to households; and (4) the provision of channels to 3rd parties who wish to supply pay TV to customers.

It is thought that the main objections are related to ongoing access to Foxtel’s programs and the amount of competitors providing content.

Industry observers believe Foxtel and Optus will have to concede most of the concessions , which is owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, are expected to back down to most of the ACCC's requirements in order to push the deal through.

Among other concessions, analysts expect that Foxtel will have to allow its rival content providers full access to Telstra's cable in order to win ACCC approval.

It is expected a final decision will be made within the next 3 months.

Foxtel is 50%-owned by Telstra Corporation (TLS), and 25% each by News Corp (NCP) and Publishing & Broadcasting (PBL).

At the close of trading yesterday, Telstra Corp was 5c lower at $4.77 while SingTel was down 4c at $1.49

China Declares War on Falun Gong Satellite Hackers

From www.nytimes.com/

BEIJING (Reuters) - China vowed Monday to punish members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement who hijacked state-run satellite signals during the soccer World Cup finals in one of the group's most daring protests to date.

``This is extremely despicable and represents yet another crime committed by Falun Gong,'' said Liu Lihua, Director-General of Ministry of Information Industry'sRadio Regulatory Department told a media conference.

The MII said Falun Gong followers had, under the guidance of U.S.-based leader Li Hongzhi, hijacked nine national channels and 10 provincial stations by interfering with signals of state-run Sino Satellite (SINOSAT) company between June 23 to 30.

``We solemnly warn the Falun Gong cult to immediately stop its lawless disruption of normal communications,'' the ministry said in a statement.

Followers had hacked into cable television networks earlier this year but this was the first time Falun Gong had intercepted the Sinosat satellite, which serves strategic interests such as the national weather bureau and state-run Xinhua news agency.

Millions of Chinese missed part of the World Cup finals, celebrations for the fifth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, and news related to the fatal floods that had swept the nation, Liu said.

Instead, viewers concentrated in poor and mountainous areas of the country were intermittently shown blackened screens and, at one point, around 20 seconds of images showing Falun Gong adherents meditating in seated positions.

It disrupted a government scheme to broadcast propaganda to the massive rural population, part of efforts to maintain social stability as wrenching reforms threaten to see millions lose their jobs ahead of an expected key leadership re-shuffle.

Xinhua quoted a senior official as saying the act was an ``overt challenge to modern civilized society'' and a ``flagrant subversion of social order.''

China's sensitivity over Falun Gong was highlighted last week when Beijing stopped transmission of the BBC's World Service Television channel after it showed group members in Hong Kong protesting against visiting Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

MEDIA TARGETED

Falun Gong, banned in China after followers staged a peaceful demonstration to demand recognition of their faith in 1999, practices a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, traditional Chinese exercises and its founder's own ideas.

The group's once frequent demonstrations, mostly on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, have petered out following a fierce crackdown.

Followers appear to have changed tactics to focus on state media, and successfully hacked into cable television networks in the southwestern city of Chongqing in January and in the northeastern city of Changchun in March, Liu said.

He said substantial progress had been made in tracking down the perpetrators, who he said had breached national security and international telecommunications conventions.

``They can run but they cannot hide forever. They will be subjected to severe punishment according to the law,'' Liu said.

The interception of Sinosat's signals, which disrupted more than a dozen hours of viewing, had caused extensive but unspecified economic losses to the commercial reputation of Sino Satellite Communications Ltd, officials said.

While it was easier to interfere with cable television systems than with a satellite, people could buy some of the necessary equipment from local shops and learn how to analyze satellite signals, said Du Baichuan, deputy chief engineer of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT).

``It is not as high-tech as a layman may think,'' Du told the news conference.

Sun Network Channels Set To Go Pay By 2003


From http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=12712

Chennai: The Kalanithi Maran-controlled Sun Network, which owns a bouquet of nine regional language channels, is planning to go pay by early 2003. Its Telugu language channels - Gemini TV and Teja TV - will be the first to go pay followed by other regional channels in phases.

Talking to eFE, Mr Sharad Kumar, director of Gemini TV and Udaya TV, controlled by the Sun Network said Gemini and Teja would go pay by September or October with the rest of the Sun channels following suit in six months time.

Every 30 to 45 days, one or two Sun Network channels would go pay, he said.

?We expect a substantial increase in our revenues from the subscription model,” he said.

Sun Network has nine satellite channels in its portfolio - Gemini and Teja for the Telugu audience, Sun TV, KTV and Sun News for Tamil viewers, Udaya, Ushe and Udaya News in Kannada language and Surya TV in Malayalam. It also runs a cable channel SCV (Sumangali Cable Vision).

The company is planning to charge a subscription of Rs 10 per household for both Gemini and Teja.

Considering that there are around seven million cable and satellite TV owning households in Andhra Pradesh and Gemini has 100 per cent penetration, the channel would get a revenue close to Rs 85 crore in the first year itself from these two channels, if all its cable operators stay with it.

Ultimately, all the Sun channels would be offered as a bouquet, said Mr Kumar.

The company is, however, confident that even if a cable operator refuses to comply, another will take his place as its channels are very popular.

In fact, cable operators in Andhra have already expressed their acquiescence for the plan, Mr Kumar told eFE.

It does not expect any churning despite its nearest rival ETV being a free-to-air channel, according to him.

According to the latest weekly report of TAM (June 23 to June 29), Gemini has a 41 per cent viewership and Teja has an eight per cent viewership in the rest of Andhra Pradesh, while in Hyderabad their share is 40 per cent and five per cent respectively.

The corresponding figures for ETV of Eenadu group is 15 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.

According to industry sources, Gemini has over 50 per cent share in the Rs 120-crore TV ad market in Andhra Pradesh, while Sun accounts for around 80 per cent of the Rs 200-crore TV ad market in Tamil Nadu.

About 19 of Gemini’s programmes figure in the top 100 TAM ratings across all channels in India.

Sun is currently in the process of appointing distributors for its channels in Andhra Pradesh.

In small districts the company will have two to three distributors, while it is looking at five to six distributors in bigger districts.

It is planning to distribute over 8,000 decoder boxes in Andhra Pradesh alone - a number some of the other pay channels have given for the entire country.

In Tamil Nadu, however, the company would do its own distribution.

(Craigs comment, these channels are on NSS at 57E only available in Central and Western Australia)

Brad Edwards dreams of an elevator stretching 62,000 miles into space

From http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134489679_spaceelevator08m.html

Brad Edwards, 39, is the chief technical officer of High Lift Systems of Seattle.

As offices go, Brad Edwards' isn't much to look at: a few chairs, a desk, a laptop, a cellphone and a bundle of decorative reeds. Not exactly mission control. But as traffic puffs along outside his window on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle, Edwards dreams of changing the future of space exploration.

He wants to build a 62,000-mile elevator into space, and as far-fetched as that sounds, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has given him $570,000 to research the possibilities.

The 39-year-old former Los Alamos National Laboratory staff scientist has teamed up with a dot-com refugee, Michael Laine, who runs the business side of High Lift Systems. This is a serious venture, they insist.

"If everything works beautifully, if we get funding, if there aren't any serious problems that crop up in the design or development, it's conceivable that it could be up and operating in about 15 years," Edwards said.

Maybe.

Edwards' idea hangs on a thread. His "elevator" is a one-meter-wide carbon ribbon strung between an off-shore rig operating in the Pacific Ocean and a satellite 62,000 miles above. Electric lifts would clamp onto the ribbon and ferry gear into orbit and beyond, like a dumbwaiter serving space.

No one has yet figured out how to construct the ultra-strong ribbon, but hundreds of researchers worldwide are investigating the possibilities of the carbon material needed to make it.

Interest is strong because even if the elevator proves little more than a flight of fancy, the carbon would have countless earth-bound uses.

Edwards' work is funded by a grant from NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), and he is looking for private investors. The institute awards $4 million a year in grants, a fraction of the $15 billion spent overall by the agency. The institute's motto is "Don't let your preoccupation with reality stifle your imagination."

You could say they are the Hail Mary division of NASA.

But the space elevator as a concept is not half as nutty as it sounds. Even some of Edwards' doubters admit it may not be a question of if, but when it will be built.

An elevating discussion

High Lift Systems is sponsoring a conference about the space elevator Aug. 12-13 in Seattle. For information: www.confcon.com

"I think they're way out of line with reality in terms of making this happen in the time scale they're talking about. ... The time scale for this is 50 years at the earliest. If they don't do it, maybe their grandchildren will," said Derek Webber of Futron Corp., a Bethesda, Md., aerospace-consulting firm that works for NASA and major aerospace companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

NIAC Director Robert Cassanova, who backed the space-elevator grant, says, "Brad is very enthusiastic. But I think (the time scale) is very optimistic.

"If you just look at the engineering feasibility and the technologies that are required, I think that if someone with billions of dollars of disposable income wanted to build something like this, I think it could be done in 30 or 40 years. ... Maybe 50 or 100 years is more realistic."

Here's the quick rundown of Edwards' space elevator:

The derrick would be located along the equator, hundreds of miles from anywhere and far from commercial flight paths.

"If you're standing on the North Pole, you're probably closer to civilization," is how Edwards describes it.

It's also in the middle of the world's calmest seas, where there is seldom lightning, which would cause problems if it hit the elevator base or carbon ribbon.

The other end of the ribbon is in outer space, tethered to a 650-ton satellite. Think of a string stretching from the planet into space with a big rock tied to the end.

At the business end, space-bound payloads would be clamped to the ribbon and would roll up it, the same way an old-style washing machine pulls material through a couple of rolling pins.

The first strand of ribbon would be taken up into space aboard a conventional rocket and unfurled down to the Pacific Ocean. As electric lifts, or climbers, began to move up the strand, they would pull additional strands with them, bringing the ribbon up to its full cargo-bearing width.

The climbers would be powered by a house-sized laser strapped on a second derrick nearby. It would shoot beams of light at solar-power cells fitted to the lifts.

The technology for the cordless power transmission is available, though a system built to the specifications needed for the elevator does not yet exist, Edwards says.

Customers could bolt whatever they wanted onto the climbers satellites, small spaceships, pieces of space stations.

Edwards figures each climber could deliver 13 tons of cargo into space at a time the equivalent of a Mack truck. (NASA's space shuttle can carry 24 tons; more frequently used unmanned rockets carry about 5 tons.)

Edwards estimates the climbers would reach the top of the ribbon in about 10 days, though most cargo would be jettisoned into orbit somewhere along the way, depending on the desired orbit.

The system also could fling cargo or manned craft into space. As the Earth rotates at some 16,000 mph, the ribbon with its satellite counterweight would act as a giant slingshot, capable of flinging cargo and manned craft deep into space, Edwards says.

He imagines future explorers carrying along a space-elevator kit, building it on Mars and flinging themselves back home.

If the elevator is built in his lifetime, Edwards could be a very rich man. The space-launch market is worth billions. Launching a communications satellite costs anywhere from $45 million to $450 million. Like buying a car, the price depends on the options, according to a 2001 Federal Aviation Administration report.

If the elevator is built, the cost of going into space would plummet. "On price per pound, nobody's going to be able to touch us," said Edwards.

The missing link remains the carbon ribbon. Edwards wants to raise $28 million to fund research and development on the carbon material he thinks may eventually produce a strong enough cable.

In 1991, a group of Japanese scientists produced the first tiny ropes made entirely out of carbon. They're called carbon nanotubes, or "Buckytubes," after geodesic dome inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, because the carbon atoms form a soccer-ball pattern.

The tubes took the scientific world by storm. More than a thousand scientific papers on nanotubes were published last year.

The space-elevator community and there is a space-elevator community noticed Buckytubes right away. The tubes are strong and small, seemingly perfect for the job, but it turns out they're not quite strong enough.

That's where High Lift Systems comes in. Edwards wants to develop an epoxy that's 50 percent to 60 percent carbon nanotubes. Current methods can produce epoxies with about 1 percent nanotubes, according to Edwards, who says development of the carbon ribbon is just a matter of time (and money).

"The cable is the last hurdle. Looking at where things have gone in the last two years, and where they're going, it would be foolish not to plan the rest of the space elevator for when the ribbon will be done," he said.

Even if the elevator doesn't pan out, if Edwards only goes as far as developing the new epoxies, his investors will be more than happy. Industry should clamor to buy the ultra light, 150-times-stronger-than-steel material, he says. "We're talking about (developing) a core technology that changes the way we live," said Laine, who joined Edwards two months ago as High Lift Systems CEO.

Edwards rattles off terrestrial applications for the new material bridge cables, super strong and safe car bodies, the list goes on — but it's the space elevator that fills his dreams.

"It could change everything; it could be just an unbelievable opportunity. How often does something like this come along? So, of course, you've got to take it," he said.

Some day, he says, moving cargo into space could be so cheap and easy that it would be financially viable to put giant solar panels into orbit that could provide abundant, clean energy for earthlings.

"And you could beam it to the middle of Africa if you want; it would jump-start their standard of living immediately," he said.

The space elevator is not a brand-new idea, and it's not clear who was first to suggest it. The Russians talked of the concept in the early 1960s. Famed science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke was once asked when he thought a space elevator would be built.

"The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing," he said in a speech in 1979.

Fluttering softly in wake of the air conditioning in Edwards' office is a letter. It is from Clarke, wishing the company well. He signs off:

"All good wishes and I hope it isn't as long as 50 years!"

(Craigs comment, excuse me while I hop up to the satellite to change the batterys )

8/07/02

Not good news today, according to Lyngsat BBC World on Pas 2 3744V has left, moved to 3901H where it is encrypted in Power Vu. I hope this isn't a Lyngsat error ! if this is true it's going to upset a lot of people. Especially in the Pacific Islands where the Pas 8 FTA signal dosn't reach so well. Southern NZ is also not to hot for Pas 8 reception. I am not sure of a suitable address for you to email complaints to, if anyone has an email address that BBC responds to then please forward it to me.

Sky NZ B1, 12519 V, New Radio service loading here "UP FM" on Apid 664 Sid 1107 PMT 262, no Audio yet. Website is the obvious www.upfm.co.nz

I have sent them a nice email explaining what FTA is and asking them to support free to air open access and not limit users to paying an unnecessary subscription if they just wish to receive "UP FM". It appears they are a dance music station so I mentioned if a listener wishes they could buy a satellite receiver with built in HD. They could record UP FM on it then download onto their pc and then re-mix re-edit re-master and burn their own music. This is the sort of possibilty that can happen when you don't limit your self by being encrypted and limited to Skys box.

More news from Sky in the News section.

From my Emails & ICQ

From Zapara (Perth)

There is a Mystery signal in the area of Measat 2 148E?

11525 H approx , could be Measat 2 service possibly out of footprint reception
1.8M dish Dvbedit scan gives reading of 37 not enough signal to lock

(Craigs comment, it matches with the VTV Vietnam service thats started a couple of days ago there hmm, the Vietnam beam is listed at Lyngsat, looks like a long sharp beam and a very high powerd signal take a look at the footprint and see what you think anyone else locate it? reports please)

From the Dish

PAS 2 169E 3744 V "BBC World and the test cards" have left .(please I need a few people to confirm this)
PAS 2 169E 3901 H "BBC World" has started, PowerVu (encrypted), PIDs 1460/1420.

Optus B1 160E 12519 V "UP FM" Radio FTA (not broadcasting yet) on Apid 664

Apstar 1A 134E 3800 H A CCTV mux has started, Fta, Sr 27500, Fec 3/4, a copy of 3840 H.

ST 1 88E 3582 H "PTS" has left . New PIDs for SET International: 38/39.

Intelsat 804 64E 3644 R "Radio One has replaced East Africa FM" Fta, Apid 259.

NSS 703 57E 3939 L "ETV (Ethiopia)" is back Fta, Sr 6000, Fec 3/4, PIDs 33/34.

NEWS

REGIONAL ADVERTISING BREAKS FOR TV ONE & TV2 ON SKY DIGITAL PLATFORM

Press Release

From www.skytv.co.nz

Television New Zealand SKY Television and have signed an agreement that will enable TVNZ to offer its advertisers regional advertising on TV ONE and TV2 on SKY Television's Digital Platform.

TVNZ Chief Executive Officer, Ian Fraser said that the collaborative approach between SKY and TVNZ was an example of the two broadcasters working together to provide a better service to viewers and advertisers.

"With viewers watching TV ONE and TV2 on SKY Digital, it is important that we can continue to offer our advertisers the regional emphasis they require."

The agreement with SKY Television will see the creation of three TVNZ digital viewer regions. The North Island will have two regions - north and south of Lake Taupo, with the third region covering all of the South Island.

The regional advertising north of Taupo will be that of the current Auckland analogue service, the lower North Island will be the current Wellington analogue region and the South Island advertising on the digital service will be that of the Christchurch analogue region.

In addition to the new advertising regions, TVNZ Teletext is also confirmed to launch on the SKY Digital Service. SKY Director of Communications, Tony O'Brien said, "We are pleased to be able to provide this additional service for our viewers and look forward to working with TVNZ in the future."

Teletext, as with TV ONE and TV2, will be supplied to SKY viewers free of charge.

Both services are planned to be fully operational in September 2002.

For further information contact:
Tony O'Brien
Director of SKY Television
Ph: (09) 579 9999
Email [email protected]

Andrea Rush
Communications Manager
SKY Television
Ph: (09) 579-9999 or
027 4962-349
Email: [email protected]

(Craigs comment, 3 regions x 2 channels for each region = 6 channels what a waste of transponder space!! As for TXT subtitles have been available for a long time the TVNZ on 12456V has had full teletext available since when it started (with a few problems) . They probably have a deal to rearrange 12456 V which has just 2 services at the moment named Tv1 Wellington, TV2 Wellington, I picked this to happen ages ago. I wonder if they will also change them to NDS? I don't know about you but I am not happy about how Sky's slowly taking over everything! There is an email address in that press release. make good use of it. )

Japan's N-Star c Successfully Orbited

From satnewsasia.com

Japan's N-STAR c and Europe's Stellat 5 satellites were successfully launched into orbit by an Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou on July 5.

Stellat 5, a multi-purpose communications satellite, rode in the upper payload position on Flight 153 and was released into geostationary transfer orbit first. The satellite will replace Telecom 2. Built by Alcatel Space in Europe, Stellat-5 will provide TV and two-way Internet service to users in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and along the east coast of the American continents.

It was followed seven minutes later by N-Star c in the lower position. Built by a Lockheed Martin/Orbital team for NTT DoCoMo, Inc., N-Star c will operate in S-band frequencies from an orbital location at 136 degrees East longitude. The spacecraft is optimized for a 10-year on-orbit life and will provide mobile telephony and data transfer services to Japan and its surrounding waters. N-Star c will have a launch mass of 1,625 kilograms and is based on Orbital's Star-1 and Star-2 standard platforms. NTT DoCoMo currently operates two other satellites and this third spacecraft will ensure NTT DoCoMo can continue serving its 43 million customers.

The July 5 mission shot was the 153rd for Arianespace and the ninth commercial mission for Ariane 5. There have been 12 Ariane 5 launches, including one earlier this year. Six Ariane 4 rockets were also launched this year. Arianespace's next launch is now targeted for Aug. 27 and will carry Atlantic Bird 1 and MSG 1 into orbit.

Shin Sat in Broadband Deal with Samart

From satnewsasia.com

ShinSat plans to launch its iPSTAR-1 Broadband Internet Satellite in late 2003.

Shin Satellite Plc, Thailand’s only private satellite operator, has signed an agreement with VSAT operator Samart Telecoms Plc to help widen the customer base for its iPSTAR-1 broadband satellite.

Under the agreement, Samart Telecoms will provide broadband networks by using iPSTAR-1 technology. The US$350 million satellite is due to launch in late 2003 and is seen by ShinSat as its major revenue source in coming years. Executive Chairman Dumrong Kasemset earlier said that ShinSat had so far booked US$75 million for iPSTAR and had signed contracts to sell 25 percent of its capacity in China, Malaysia and India.

Shin Sat, Asia’s second leading satellite company in revenues, is 51 percent owned by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Since 2000, ShinSat has been aggressively selling capacity on its iPSTAR-1, especially in India, which the company considers its largest foreign market. Analysts said the company plans to launch broadband services by linking with existing satellites in India, China and Myanmar by the end of this year. Shin Sat has already launched its broadband technology in Thailand and Malaysia using ground stations linked with satellites.

iPSTAR-1 will be first of a new generation of Asian broadband satellites that will act both as an Internet backbone connection to fiber optic cables for ISPs and as a last-mile broadband Internet service to consumers, competing with coaxial cable and ADSL, iPSTAR-1 will have a total of 100 beams: 10 Ka-band spot beams, 87 Ku-band spot beams and three Ku-band shaped beams. iPSTAR-1 will provide telecommunications and multimedia services to households, business and private organizations.

Asian Multimedia Satellites: Too Few to Matter—For Now

From satnewsasia.com

Satnews Asia/ — When Thailand’s Shinawatra Satellite pcl (ShinSat) finally launches its much-hyped iPSTAR-1 broadband satellite in 2003, Asia will have more Ka-band capacity than it needs.

IPSTAR-1 will be first of a new generation of Asian broadband satellites that will act both as an Internet backbone connection to fiber optic cables for ISPs and as a last-mile broadband Internet service to consumers, competing with coaxial cable and ADSL, iPSTAR-1 will have a total of 100 beams: 10 Ka-band spot beams, 87 Ku-band spot beams and three Ku-band shaped beams.

iPSTAR-1 will provide telecommunications and multimedia services to households, business and private organizations. Considering the nature of iPSTAR’s spot beams and ground system network, the most reasonable future service with the best optimized resource utilization will be Asymmetric Internet Traffic.

In addition, there will be dedicated regional broadcast beams that will provide cost effective, high quality broadcast services to several regions within the coverage area. This dual use of the available spectrum for narrowcast services (Internet, data, or other two-way communications, i.e., telephony) and broadcast services on the same platform represents the highest efficiency and flexibility in service provision possible.

By using just one single set-top box and a small receiver dish, users will be able to take advantage of all the services mentioned above, with competitive price levels comparable to other terrestrial broadband solutions such as ADSL, cable modem and LMDS.

ShinSat’s research and development partner has developed high efficiency digital coding and compression techniques, together with a unique and flexible system architecture that will enable the iPSTAR Broadband Satellite System to provide a nominal capacity of over 50 gigabits per second.

This is equivalent to more than 1,000 standard 36 MHz transponders, and is 20 to 40 times more efficient than conventional satellite technology. Using this technology, iPSTAR-1 will offer far more capacity than other proposed broadband satellites, making iPSTAR-1 not only much more cost-efficient than existing satellites but other broadband satellites as well.

When launched, iPSTAR-1 will become will become one of only a few Ka-band or multimedia satellites in orbit. Korea Telecom’s KoreaSat-3 and a number of Japan’s JSAT Corporation satellites are the only other Asian Ka-band satellites in space.

ShinSat’s chosen Asian markets are some of the most fiercely fought over by satellite service providers. Then there are American providers such as PanAmSat and Intelsat to contend with in the Ka-band arena, along with Europe’s SES Global, the world’s largest satellite operator.

ShinSat, however, expects iPSTAR to become its flagship satellite with 13 million users by 2008, of which 600,000 customers will be in Thailand. Its biggest market, however, is expected to be China. The new satellite is seen as the main driver of the company's future earnings.

American research firm Northern Sky Research believes the satellite-broadband Internet access market in Asia-Pacific could be worth as much as US$4.51 billion in combined residential and enterprise service revenue by 2006.

Of this total, the enterprise segment should account for revenues of US$2.6 billion while broadband satellite access revenues from residential users should hit some US$2 billion.

The appeal of Ka-band satellites rests in the cost savings they can provide. The switching capability of Ka-band satellites makes them operate like a public telephone network but with the facility to offer digital services with a wide variety of bit rates.

Users will be offered “bit rate on demand” and its variation, “variable bit rate on demand,” meaning that users will only pay for the time that they use a link. This contrasts with conventional satellites where users usually have to pay for permanent leases. That only makes it economic to use satellites where there is a massive amount of information to be moved, such as TV channels and trunk telephony links.

In contrast, the Ka-band concept offers the equivalent of a local drop telephone circuit where the user pays for temporary lease of time. The Ka-band environment also allows an alternative, charging per bit of information moved. Ka-band satellite operators will become something like telephone companies but with their telephone exchanges in the sky.

The Ka-band available to satellite operators involved a massive 2.5-3.5 GHz of spectrum, or some 4-7 times that available to some C-band satellite operators. On the demand side, the growth of Internet as a mass-market consumer and business service and perceived likely growth in demand for multimedia services combining two way video, voice, data and graphics showed a need to provide substantive infrastructure for two way services and associated switching technology. Ka-band satellites offered one major solution to meeting the demand.

The main market for Ka-band satellites is now believed to be in the provision of high speed Internet and Intranet access. Western satellite service providers are exploiting Asia’s huge appetite for high-speed Internet access.

New Skies Satellites, the global satellite communications company, intends to more than double its satellite capacity for broadband content delivery for Asia by 2003, according to New Skies’ Chief Executive Officer Bob Ross.

Ross outlined New Skies’ plans to launch Asia’s first intra-regional Ku/Ka-band satellite and to augment its other Asian satellites. The new satellite, NSS-6, will be launched by the end of 2002, and will carry six broad Ku-band beams covering India, China, the Middle East (including Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean), South Africa, Australia, and South East Asia and North East Asia.

Twelve super-high-gain uplink spot beams in the Ka-band (10 of which can be used at any one time) will facilitate high data-rate transmissions from antennas as small as 90 cm directly from remote premises. This feature will permit ISPs and enterprise customers to avoid congested terrestrial communication systems and obtain fully-interactive access to high-speed Internet and other multimedia communications within or across service regions throughout Asia.

To support these investments in Asia, New Skies opened an office in New Delhi in 2000, which joins Singapore and Sydney as regional centers for New Skies activities.

Most major Ku-band satellite developments, however, are occurring in the USA. Early this year, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems (LMCSS) announced that construction of two A2100 geosynchronous satellites is underway for SES AMERICOM, Inc., based on a contract awarded in 2000. The Ku/Ka-band satellites, designated AMC-15 and AMC-16, will provide distribution of video channels as well as broadband data and internet services across North America.

The new hybrid Ku/Ka-band spacecraft will expand SES AMERICOM's fleet of satellites, which provide global distribution of cable, broadcast television and radio, telecommunications services, business TV and broadband data.