RESEARCH — Nearly 16 percent of American households who use the internet watch television broadcasts online, a new study suggests. According to The Conference Board and TNS, the number of consumers viewing entire episodes on the ‘net has doubled from one year ago. The research firms said personal convenience and avoiding commercials were the top two reasons why consumers are flocking to the internet for video. The study also said four of five online viewers say watching internet video has not changed their TV viewing habits.

TECHNOLOGY — Integral Systems subsidiary RT Logic unveiled its new Telemetrix 500RX high-rate digital/analog recorder system. Combining RT’s high-speed field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based hardware and firmware with commercial off-the-shelf PC server technology, the T500RX offers customers aggregate recording and playback rates in excess of 1 Gbps and is available in 1U, 2U, and 5U rack-mount versions, the company said.

INTERNATIONAL — Russian satellite operator Gascom inked a capacity deal with Network Teleport Italia. The Italian company will lease capacity on the Yamal-202 satellite to provide data, internet, television, radio and IP content distribution. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MISCELLANY — The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) welcomed three firms to the organization as new installation members. The SBCA said it will now be working with Impact Satellite of Harrisburg, PA; Computer Cabling Products International of Denver, CO; and Atlas Marketing of Provo, UT to support their education and licensing efforts.

MISCELLANY — EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen, along with company co-founders Candy Ergen and Jim DeFranco said they are supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) in her campaign for the presidency in 2008. The company is encouraging its retailers to support the senator’s run as well, urging them to donate $2,300 to Clinton’s campaign. If dealers comply, they’ll get an invitation to a fund-raising event Oct. 23 at Ergen’s home. What a deal.

PROGRAMMING — FOX Business News launched this morning on several systems. DIRECTV is going to carry the channel in high definition on its channel 359. So far, the new business news outlet has yet to ink a deal with EchoStar’s DISH Network.

CONFERENCES — The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) will be hosting its annual CASBAA Convention 2007 from Oct. 30 through Nov. 2 at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The show, dubbed “It’s all about Content!,” will showcase how content, technology and changing consumer demand are shaping the growth of creative content development and content delivery resulting in possible new revenue streams. For more information, visit www.casbaa.com.

EDUCATION — COMSYS will be hosting a seminar titled “Satellite Communications Fundamentals for Non-Technical Professionals” Oct. 29-30 in Hong Kong. The two-day event is in conjunction with the annual Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) Convention at the same location.

DIRECTV and EchoStar were hoping that when the House Judiciary Committee approved a tax moratorium extension bill last week that it would prohibit states from imposing DBS-specific taxes. Now both companies are looking for answers after learning the bill does not include the language they wanted.

One solution could come in the form of a bill House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers introduced in September. The DBS companies are lobbying for the state tax streamlining bill, but sources said it is unclear whether the House will pass what would be non-discriminatory legislation this year.

According to reports, Conyers is set on having Congress address the issue which could have significant implications on states’ ability to enact taxes on satellite TV that are different from those established for cable services. As it stands, six states currently have what the DBS companies consider “discriminatory” tax structures on satellite TV.

A collective action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio claims Blue Grass Satellite and Security pressured its technicians to not report overtime hours despite knowing the employees worked the extra time. The suit seeks to recover unpaid overtime to the company’s technicians who install and repair DRECTV equipment to residential and business customers.

According to legal documents, the two current workers who are bringing the case on behalf of all employed technicians were paid on a job rate basis without receiving time-and-a-half premium pay for work hours totaling more than 40 in a given week. The suit charges Blue Grass, a.k.a. JBM, with pressuring its employees to not report the overtime work.

The Getman Law Office of New Paltz, New York and the Langendorf Law Office of Middletown, Ohio said the suit joins a list of similar suits against DIRECTV installation companies charged with similar violations. The plaintiffs are seeking unpaid overtime wages and “liquidated” or double damages as allowed under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

According to the law firms, the federal overtime law is a new piece of legislation designed to ensure reasonable hours of work and pay for all U.S. workers.

“The telecommunications industry routinely underpays installation and repair technicians,” said plaintiff attorney Dan Getman. “The practice of not paying time-and-a-half overtime is unfortunately common, but it is generally illegal unless there is a specific exemption stated in the law itself.”

DIRECTV declined SkyREPORT’s request for comment.

PROGRAMMING — EchoStar launched Spanish-language TeleFormula on DISH Network’s Dish LATINO package, the company said Thursday. TeleFormula is one of the highest-rated satellite channels in Mexico and Dish LATINO is the largest distributed Spanish-language package in the States. To promote the launch, TeleFormula started a $500K awareness campaign across it 45-plus U.S. radio affiliates. The network serves more than 3 million viewers in Mexico, the company said.

RESEARCH — The Space Foundation has released The Space Report 2007 containing global space industry budgets and revenue data. The organization said the updated report reveals dramatic growth in the space economy that is outpacing other markets and indices. The Space Report 2007 is available for free download at www.TheSpaceReport.org.

INTERNATIONAL — Mobile satellite service provider Globalstar subsidiary Globalstar Europe is launching Static IP address and virtual private network capability for its satellite data customers throughout western Europe — Malaysian satellite operator Measat signed new distribution agreements helping the company enter the South Asian markets. Unveiled this week, Measat inked deals with Pacific Century Matrix to use Measat-3 to distribute two Asian movie channels — SES Astra acquired a stake in Dubai-based system integrator Glocom for digital broadcasting solutions. Terms of the deal were not given — Broadcast automation and content management solutions company OmniBus Systems unveiled plans to expand its operations in the Asia-Pacific region following increased installations at broadcasters including Ascent, Astro, Discovery, NDTV and TV3.

Not long ago, EchoStar notified its authorized dealer chain to refrain from selling free-to-air receivers because the act violates company policy. Undoubtedly the move comes as a response to its current legal battle with FTA receiver distributor Viewtech.

This week, EchoStar asked that a federal judge in San Diego throw out Viewtech’s request to have the satellite company’s lawsuit against it dismissed. EchoStar’s suit, filed earlier this year, claims Viewtech knowingly designs, manufactures and distributes FTA receivers to purposely allow users to steal DISH Network TV service - a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

EchoStar said Viewtech developed software that users can download that transforms the otherwise legal receivers into signal piracy tools. In Viewtech’s request to have the original lawsuit thrown out, the technology firm claimed EchoStar does not own the copyrights to the programming DISH Network distributes. EchoStar asked the court to reject that notion as well.

In other EchoStar legal news, the satellite company added more names to its list of end users it has sued for allegedly pirating DISH Network’s signals. The company filed a lawsuit against Florida resident Miguel Garcia and two Illinois residents Andrew and Beth McSkimming alleging the unauthorized customers used modified receivers to steal DISH programming.

According to reports, EchoStar decided to pursue both cases after Garcia and the McSkimmings returned receivers to the company and it found them to be altered. The lawsuits claim the consumers also violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Communications Act of 1934.

Research shows that as revenue from standard set-top box sales declines, along with waning demand for aging STBs during the next few years, set-top vendors will initially rely on DBS, IPTV and digital terrestrial television (DTT) boxes. However, according to a new study from ABI Research, by the end of the decade even those sectors will be under pressure from alternative technologies to facilitate “the connected home.”

In response, the research firm says STB vendors will have to add new features and functions in order to revive flagging shipment numbers. “The development of two-way digital-cable-ready TVs, residential gateways, media centers, and even video capabilities on gaming systems will put the set-top’s status at risk,” says research analyst Paulhwa Lee.

ABI says STB manufacturers are responding in several ways, starting with the addition of new features like increased hard-disk space, DVD players, DVD burners, home-audio solutions. The developments will help to make traditional STBs more relevant to consumer demands, improve electronic program guides and incorporate more web-based services and video gaming, the firm says.

Set-top box vendors are also moving more aggressively into the hybrid STB market, ABI said, as hybrid boxes offer a single solution to a number of possible problems caused by the multiplicity of video sources and distribution platforms.

Said Lee: “No one video or television technology will be a ‘killer’ in the next few years. So as this market flattens towards the end of our forecast period in 2012, STB vendors would be well advised to incorporate as many of those technologies as possible into their products.”

ENTERPRISE — WildBlue Enterprise Solutions said Wednesday it will begin providing an optional, larger satellite dish for use exclusively by business customers subscribing to its enterprise products, beginning late October. The new .98 meter dish is designed to provide greater network availability for WildBlue Enterprise Solution’s broadband internet service for business and government customers.

PROGRAMMING — DIRECTV added four high-definition channels to its HD lineup Wednesday bringing the company’s total to 45. The total includes DIRECTV’s four local networks. The new HD channels being offered are MGM HD (channel 255); Food Network HD (channel 231); National Geographic HD (channel 276) and CNBC HD (channel 355).

TECHNOLOGY — Off-air DBS/HD accessory distributor Centronics introduced its HDTE-200 HDMI cable tester - the newest addition to its Elite HD product line. The tester will test any HDMI cable up to 1.3 specifications by checking all 19 pins to ensure the cable is defect free. Centronics said the HDTE-200 can be used with both standard and mini HDMI heads, with a MSRP of $69.95.

CONFERENCES — Peter Diamandis of the X PRIZE Foundation, Paypal founder Elon Musk, who now heads Space Exploration Technologies, Virgin Galactic’s Alex Tai and t/Space’s Lon Levin are among the speakers announced for the International Symposium of Personal Spaceflight. Scheduled for Oct. 24-25 in Las Cruces, NM, the Symposium focuses on the new Wild West of entrepreneurial space ventures, including space tourism, low-cost space cargo and passenger vehicle technologies, rocket racing and the like. For more information on the event, go to: http://spacegrant.nmsu.edu/isps/.

It’s called Broadband Across America, and it’s a program that has the potential to bring satellite-delivered broadband to a lot more customers. Hughes Network Systems took the wraps off a plan to offer consumers across North America its HughesNet satellite broadband internet service from Wal-Mart, the country’s largest retailer. The joint effort is designed to give more customers in rural areas the opportunity to experience high-speed internet access.

According to the companies, the HughesNet service will be sold in 2,800 Wal-Mart stores across the U.S., including locations throughout most of rural America where terrestrial broadband services are often not available. And with millions of Americans shopping at Wal-Mart each week, being able to purchase HughesNet at the stores makes broadband more accessible in many more areas across the country than ever before.

Hughes said every Wal-Mart customer who purchases a HughesNet system will receive an “ExpressPay” card for $100 to buy anything at the retail behemoth. Hughes said HughesNet’s download speeds should range from 700Kbps to 2Mbps with pricing starting at $60 per month.

In many of the Wal-Mart stores, HughesNet will be available in the electronics department, through a “Digital Connection Kiosk” or customers can contact the Wal-Mart call center to be connected with a Hughes installer.

For months DIRECTV boasted that it would offer subscribers 70 high-definition channels by the end of October. On

Monday, half way through the month, the satellite giant continued its HD expansion and launched just enough channels to hit its stated goal.

To open the week, DIRECTV increased its high-def offering by adding six national channels, four regional sports networks and six pay-per-view channels to the mix.

Included in the latest expansion is Cartoon Network (channel 296), Fox Business (359), Fuel TV (612), FX (248), HGTV (229-1) and Speed (607). The regional sports networks in the launch are FSN Detroit (channel 636), FSN Southwest (643), FSN West (652) and FSN Prime Ticket (653). The high-definition PPV stations are 135-137 and 145-147.

DIRECTV said that with the latest additions, the company now offers 72 high-def channels to its subscribers. According to company statements, DIRECTV is still shooting to hit 100 HDs by the end of the year.
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