Photo by sir_watkynThe Government of India is seeking to acquire a technological solution that will allow it to block direct downlinking of satellite television channels distributed through direct-to-home (DTH) services and cable operators. However, this will involve compliance from a slew of companies including DTH operators or multi-system operators.

The move is being considered to stop illegal broadcast of some foreign television channels in the country, distributed largely by local cable operators. According to senior government officials, the step was contemplated in the aftermath of riots that broke out in Jammu and Kashmir following reports about the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in the US. The news was aired by an Iranian television channel that was downlinked by local cable operators in the valley, leading to protests in the valley, resulting in several deaths.

Photo by marcoPapale.comIreland’s answer to Freeview – called Saorview – launched across Ireland on October 31.

The first-stage service reaches 90 per cent of the population and carries RTÉ One, RTÉ Two, TG4 and RTÉ News Now. There are also several radio channels, and TV3 is expected to join when it haas overcome some commercial issues.

A second stage will launch in Spring 2011 with high definition sport, drama and film; news services; interactive services and dedicated children’s services, and will reach 98 per cent of the population by 2012.

RTE is also planning to launch Saorsat – a free-to-air satellite TV service exclusive to Ireland – in Spring 2011 to reach the final two per cent.

This can’t be achieved with the Astra 2 group at 28 degrees East – used by Freesat and Sky – because it also covers the UK and parts of Europe.

But is might be done with Eutelsat Ka-Sat, a new satellite launching later this year which uses highly focussed beams in higher Ka-band frequencies.

The Irish government is already planning to use Ka-Sat to supply broadband to remote communities, so it would be ideal for getting TV to the same locations.

However, no deal for TV has yet been announced between RTE and Eutelsat.

Like all EU countries, Ireland must switch off its analogue TV transmitter network by the end of 2012.

Photo by Andy Field (Hubmedia)The new channel will be available on Freesat channel 108, Freeview channel 50, Sky channel 143 and Virgin Media channel 108.

The new channel – a simulcast of BBC One – will free up the existing BBC HD channel to showcase more programming from BBC Two, Three and Four.

Viewers may need to retune their satellite receivers to pick up the new channel, as reported here.

The BBC’s internet blog features a piece on the extensive technical preparations for the channel launch.

Orange TV, part of the huge France Telecom organisation, has announced that its total European digital TV subscriber base has grown by a massive fifty three per cent to 3.217 million during the past year.

In France, which is of course the key area for France Telecom, Orange TV performed well, showing an incredible forty seven per cent increase in subscribers as at the end of December 2009.

However the French company includes online TV with its satellite subscriber base, which probably has more to do with providing advertisers with full viewer figures rather than any attempt to massage the amount of subscribers that the company has on its books at any one time.

Figures are up generally for Orange TV, with sport and film service users standing at 633,000 compared with 130,000 in 2008, while on demand services increased by 67 per cent to 8.5 million.

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The German pay TV satellite provider Sky Deutschland, which of course is controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, is expecting to report a loss for 2010, but for the following year the broadcaster is expecting to see a profit.

Sky Deutschland, which is the country’s largest pay TV operator, will be posting a loss of between 130 million and 170 million Euros for the year 2010.

This will be reversed in the following year but by how much has not been predicted.

The company is in good shape and when it comes to average revenue per customer, the broadcasters is claiming that currently three quarters of its customers are paying in excess of thirty Euros per month.

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Italian public broadcaster RAI has had a long relationship with Eutelsat, but that hasn’t stopped it signing with SES Astra for a new channel launch.

SES Astra says it has signed a capacity agreement with RAI to use capacity from Astra’s 19.2 degrees East orbital position to broadcast its new international channel Yes Italia to a European audience.

The agreement follows successful test broadcasts in 2009 and also includes the delivery of uplink services from Astra’s broadcasting centre in Unterföhring near Munich.

Yes Italia is RAI’s new theme-based channel designed to promote Italy’s historical, artistic and cultural heritage to an audience across Europe.

The channel is managed by RAI’s subsidiary NewCo Rai and is broadcast in Italian with English and Spanish subtitles on a 24/7 basis.

Alexander Oudendijk, CCO at SES Astra, said: “We are very pleased to have signed this agreement with RAI, which marks an important milestone in our strategy to position ourselves as a partner for Italian broadcasters. Following our recent agreement with Milano Teleport, this is now the second commercial agreement we have signed in the Italian market within a relatively short period of time. We are very confident that this positive development will continue, and we look forward to signing additional agreements soon.”

The agreement is part of a larger strategic partnership which was founded to jointly test and develop innovative broadcasting services and interactive applications. In the framework of this agreement, SES Astra has already launched an Astra HD demo channel in cooperation with RAI on its 23.5 degrees East orbital position.

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Spacecom, the Amos satellite fleet operator,  announced that the Amos-5i satellite has reached its 17 degrees East orbital position and has begun commercial service.

With clients from Africa, Europe and the Middle East already on board, the Amos-5i satellite enables Spacecom to start serving the growing African market with C-band and Ku-band capacity.

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The satellite, broadband and phone provider BSkyB has once again defied the recession and posted an increase in revenues and at the same time have been signing up new customers.

If ever a business was recession proof Sky TV would have to be up there with the leaders.

Sky TV is now within sight of the long term goal of a ten million customer base.

During the last three months the company added a further 172,000, taking the total to 9.7 million.

But it is revenues that build a company and BSkyB reports a revenue increase of ten per cent on the year to £2.9 billion.

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Sat4fun wishes all of you a Happy New Year.

The new Freesat set top boxes announced this week by Humax will not only offer the user access to free to view satellite TV through Freesat but, like many of the boxes coming to the market recently, will also offer access to the BBC iPlayer and possibly the ITV Player.

There will be two versions of the Freesat HD receiver, the Foxsat HD2 and the Foxsat HD2R.

Both set top boxes are the same, except the HD2R version includes a 500 Gb hard drive, allowing the user to record one programme while watching another, pause live TV and time shift programming too.

The Humax Foxsat HD series could be a real rival to similar equipment offered by the satellite pay TV provider BSkyB, but with no subscription charges.

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