Recent content by SAW II

WildBlue Communications completed a $50 million equity financing led by its current investors, a move the company said will support the satellite broadband service's continued growth. Liberty Media, Intelsat, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and private equity firm Kleiner...

Singapore telecommunications service providers M1, SingTel and StarHub, together with national broadcaster MediaCorp, will begin a consumer mobile TV trial using Digital Video Broadcasting—Handheld (DVB-H) technology in August 2008. Some 300 customers of the three providers will be invited to...

Thomson Reuters is planning to launch a business television news channel to take on Bloomberg and CNBC. The new channel will be available on all platforms including the internet. A start is envisaged early 2009. In the past, Reuters has denied it was to expand its video news syndication...

Sistema Mass Media is to secure its new launch DVB-H network with a package of technologies from ***. The company has opted for the *** Unified Headend that will secure its content across a variety of mobile TV handsets, PCs and set-top boxes. The package also includes VideoGuard Mobile, which...

Entropic Communications, a provider of silicon solutions that enable connected home entertainment, said it is working with EchoStar Technologies to develop additional solutions leveraging its Band Translation Switch (BTS) technology. The BTS technology is capable of supporting two tuners over a...

It appears XM and Sirius have won approval for their proposed merger from the Federal Communications Commission, more than 17 months after the companies first proposed a combination of operations. A formal decision from the commission could surface at any time. There was no official word from...

SES Astra, the European unit of global satellite giant SES, ordered a new satellite, Astra 1N, from EADS unit Astrium. The bird is scheduled for launch in 2011 and will be positioned at 19.2 degrees East. It will mainly serve the German, French and Spanish markets. SAW II

The Federal Trade Commission said two companies that were telemarketing DISH Network programming have agreed to pay a total of $95,000 for violating the National Do Not Call Registry. The orders, filed by the Justice Department on the FTC's behalf, also bar the defendants, Planet Earth...

Talk about a limited set-aside of capacity for a merged satellite radio entity appears not to be enough for the nation's top broadcast lobby. David Rehr of the National Association of Broadcasters wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin earlier this week on the pending...

As of press time late Tuesday, things appeared to be going well for the launch of EchoStar XI, a mission that was conducted by launch services provider Sea Launch. The Zenit-3SL launch vehicle carrying the satellite cleared the Odyssey Launch Platform located in the Pacific Ocean at about 10:21...

Mobile Satellite Ventures said it reached an agreement with Boeing Satellite Systems to defer an additional $40 million in payments on the construction of the MSV-2 satellite. The $40 million deferral is in addition to an original construction payment deferral of $76 million. Deferred payments...

The Polish new generation DTH platform n has the potential to increase its subscriber total from the current 350,000 to between 1-1.5 million, according to Jan Wejchert, the president of ITI Group. Quoted in a wide -ranging interview with the local press, he added that there had been outside...

MTV Networks has partnered with Cadbury, the makers of Sour Patch Kids candy, and DISH Network for the launch of an advertiser-supported interactive TV campaign. The effort will appear during The N's all-new reality series, "Queen Bees," which premieres Friday at 9 p.m. Eastern. The campaign...

The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association said 30-year broadcasting and technology veteran Joseph Widoff has joined the group as executive director. Widoff has served in senior leadership positions at two public broadcasting stations, and he worked at the Advanced Television...

Another senator has weighed in on the XM/Sirius merger still pending at the Federal Communications Commission. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin recently about the transaction, calling into question proposals that would require a merged...