15 May 2006
Worldspace, Inc., one of the world leaders in satellite-based digital radio services, today reported its financial and operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2006.
Worldspace finished the first quarter of 2006 with 153,437 subscribers. The Company added 38,131 subscribers in the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 109% over the 18,233 subscribers added in same quarter of 2005. In India, the Company had 111,723 subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2006, up 50% from 74,574 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2005 and a five-fold increase from 21,730 at the end of the first quarter of 2005.
At the end of the first quarter of 2006, Worldspace had rolled out its satellite radio services in ten cities in India — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and Kolkata, India’s second largest city, which was launched in February 2006.
WorldSpace’s market distribution is now available to a population of nearly 63 million, including nearly 35 million people in the three market segments targeted by the Company.
“We are continuing to focus very closely on driving subscriber growth, especially in India, as we expand our services to more cities, ensure the availability of our products at more retailers and upgrade our content and products,” said Noah Samara, chairman and chief executive officer, Worldspace. “We are launching more cities and creating innovative special promotions that are driving strong revenue growth. We are confident that we have taken the necessary steps in terms of management changes, enhanced visibility, expanded marketing alliances and improved products that will enable us both to grow and retain subscribers to our ever-expanding unique and exciting content.”
Separately, Worldspace announced today the appointments of Gregory B. Armstrong and Alexander Brown as co-Chief Operating Officers of the Company.
8 May 2006
The ABU has announced the appointment of a senior Japanese broadcaster as the new Director of its Programme Department. He is Tatsuya Nakamura, currently working as an Executive Producer with NHK International Inc.
Mr Nakamura, 53, will be joining the ABU Secretariat, which is based in Kuala Lumpur, in early June.
He will be responsible for the overall management and supervision of the Programme Department, preparing its annual activity plan and budget, and advising the Secretary-General on programme matters, among other things.
Mr Nakamuras career with NHK-Japan spans over 30 years – and among his earliest positions with the public broadcaster was as Programme Director for an overseas shortwave radio service for Radio Japan.
He rose through the ranks, working in various NHK departments as well as affiliate companies before being promoted to his current position in June 2003.
On working with the ABU, Mr Nakamura said: I have been working for the broadcasting industry for almost 30 years and was able to gain a lot of expertise in this field. I firmly believe that broadcasters have a great responsibility in creating cultures based on the latest technologies.
I am confident I will be able to contribute effectively as the ABU meets the challenges of our rapidly changing media world. I like taking up challenges and the new post at the ABU is another big challenge to me.
The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) is a member of ABU.
8 May 2006
Arqiva to distribute and transmit Fives analogue terrestrial TV channel
New digital satellite-based distribution network to be commissioned
New uplink facility at Chalfont Grove
Arqiva today announced that Five has renewed its existing ten-year distribution and transmission management contract. The extension to the contract will see Arqiva manage Fives distribution and analogue transmission through to the closure of analogue TV.
Arqivas end-to-end solution distributes the signals to transmitters via satellite. As part of the renewal agreement Arqiva will re-engineer the existing distribution network to gain from improvements in compression technology and will distribute commercial regional variants of Five continuously on two separate satellites. A new uplink facility will be built at Arqivas Chalfont Grove site to complement the existing uplink in Winchester.
David Burge, Controller of Broadcasting, Five commented, It is important for us to ensure an extremely reliable distribution network in the run-up to Digital Switchover and, as Arqiva built and installed our uplink and transmitter system for our launch ten years ago, were confident that they can provide us with the service and expertise needed to achieve this.
Steve Holebrook, Arqivas managing director of Terrestrial Media Solutions, said, Were delighted to continue working with Five. Our one-stop shop solution delivers a reliable and cost-effective satellite digital distribution system to complement the existing nationwide network of analogue TV transmitters. The new satellite network will also provide additional levels of resilience to protect Fives regional advertising.
8 May 2006
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company , has announced today that it has signed a fourth transponder contract with the UK transmission service company Arqiva. The capacity subcontracted by SES ASTRA at the orbital position 28.2°/ 28.5° East will be used by Arqiva to help meet the demand from the rapidly growing number of UK channels launching on the Sky platform.
Arqiva provides a comprehensive range of end-to-end media solutions for content and channel providers and is a highly respected supplier of quality satellite solutions for the UK Direct-to-Home (DTH) market.
With this new contract, we further strengthen our position in the UK and Ireland DTH satellite market, said Alexander Oudendijk, Chief Commercial Officer of SES ASTRA. “We are delighted that a company with such a distinguished pedigree as Arqiva has again chosen to source their satellite capacity via SES ASTRA.
“The new agreement with SES ASTRA allows us to further improve our offer and expand our business in this important and growing sector, added Nick Thompson, Arqiva’s Managing Director for satellite media solutions. We are pleased that we are able to strengthen our relationship with SES ASTRA by concluding another agreement with our partner of choice.
8 May 2006
SES ASTRA, an SES GLOBAL company, has announced today that it has signed a long-term satellite capacity agreement with Discovery Communications.
As of 1st February this year, XXP, a German factual based mainstream entertainment channel, has extended its analogue transmission from four to 24 hours per day (transponder 12, frequency 11,376.50 MHz, vertical polarisation). XXP has been using analogue capacity from ASTRA on the prime orbital position 19.2° East since May 2001. XXP is also distributed in digital on ASTRA.
Discovery Communications acquired a controlling stake in XXP in March 2006.
8 May 2006
Eutelsat, one of the worlds leading satellite operators, is reaffirming its commitment to the Asian communications market with its participation at this years Broadcast Asia, Asias premier broadcasting and multimedia technology event.
In order to strengthen its commercial proposal to the Asian broadcasting market Eutelsat has joined forces with RRSat, a leading provider of end-to-end transmission and production services. Using a digital video platform located in Israel that uses Ku-band capacity on Eutelsats W5 satellite, Eutelsat and RRSat can offer content providers an efficient and reliable means for reaching DTH, cable headends, hotel and conference centres in south-east Asia. In addition to geographic reach, RRSat offers broadcasters network engineering and custom-tailored end-to-end solutions including conditional access and standards conversion.
International broadcasters who have already selected the platform as their preferred point of entry into south-east Asia include EuroNews, Trace TV and World Fashion Channel.
Eutelsat broadcasts more than 1,800 television channels and 900 radio stations to an audience of 120 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Public and private broadcasters using capacity include. Eutelsat, as a pioneer in satellite broadcasting and broadband services, is actively involved in supporting the development of digital broadcasting services in Asia. Through satellites located in the orbital arc from 15 degrees West to 70.5 degrees East, Eutelsat provides a flexible in-orbit resource with superior coverages that enable free-to-air channels and pay-TV operators to reach satellite and cable homes in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, large parts of Asia and the Americas.
