SES Astra has made a partnership with the Arabic satellite operator Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat). They will create a new company operating under the YahLive brand that will offer Direct-to-Home (DTH) television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asia. YahLive will […]

Broadband households in Europe and the US consistently rank primetime anytime VOD services as the most valuable service out of all TV 2.0 offerings, according to the Parks Associates report 'Television Services: The Global Outlook'. The international research firm says that primetime anytime services, which allow viewers to watch a show on-demand on their TV […]

French digital terrestrial channels will be available from June on the Eutelsat Atlantic Bird 3 satellite in a package to be marketed as Fransat. The satellite has always been used to broadcast the DTT channels to homes beyond DTT reception. The 18 channels will be available from June for free though viewers will need to […]

French pay TV group Canal Plus has announced a switchover from analogue to digital via an offer available to subscribers immediately. All new subscribers to the group’s analogue service will now have access to Canal Plus Cinema and Canal Plus Sport, plus HD viewing and all 18 channels on the country’s DTT platform via a […]

Sky has successfully broadcast the UK's first live event in 3D TV to a domestic 3D TV set, via its satellite network and existing Sky+HD set-top boxes. The broadcast was part of a 3D music event co-produced by Sky, specialist 3D production company Nineteen Fifteen Productions and Island Records to coincide with Keane's live performance […]

From Colin Mann in London Satellite operator SES Astra has significantly increased its reach in Europe, particularly in France, Ukraine and the UK, and is now broadcasting to 122 million analogue and digital TV homes across Europe. At the heart of the increase in reach was the increase of Astra's digital satellite penetration across Europe. […]

From David Del Valle in Madrid Spain’s broadcasting agency Abertis Telecom, shareholder in satellites Hispasat and Eutelsat, has rejected SES Astra’s charges of favouritism in the Spanish DTT market before the European Union. In a letter to the European Competition and to the Spanish Ministry of Industry, the company has defended the Spain’s DTT model […]

Sirius XM is to expand the reach of its satellite radio service with the second-quarter launch of an iPhone application as it explores a potential marketing partnership with satellite TV provider DirecTV Group. The company, which had to sell a 40 percent equity stake to Liberty Media to resolve looming debt problems, is looking for […]

Eutelsat Communications has announced that Thales Alenia Space has been commissioned to build the W3C satellite. Eutelsat will select the launcher for the satellite separately at a later stage. The rapid order of W3C follows Eutelsat’s decision not to integrate the W2M satellite into its fleet following a major anomaly which occurred during its transfer […]

Dish Network has reported its fourth-quarter profit rose 24 per cent, but the second placed US DTH provider lost more than 100,000 subscribers. Dish Network earned $217 million for the three months ended December 31st, up from $175 million a year earlier. Sales rose 1 per cent to $2.92 billion from $2.89 billion. During the […]