FTA FREE To Air ABA Dss Blog

LEGAL — A Texas judge denied Forgent Networks’ motion for a new trial regarding its patent infringement lawsuit against EchoStar last week. In upholding an earlier unanimous jury decision that the satellite company did not violate a Forgent patent, the court awarded EchoStar $90,000 in court costs. DIRECTV and various cable companies settled with Forgent before trial, the company said.

LEGAL — A jury for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled Friday that KVH Industries is not liable for infringing a King Controls patent. According to the verdict, the jury found that one of King’s claims was invalid due to “the existence of prior art as well as the obviousness of the technology,” the company said. The lawsuit asserted that KVH was liable for royalties and sought an injunction against selling certain products because satellite switching capabilities present in KVH’s TracVision mobile satellite TV systems had infringed on the King patent.

LAUNCHES — Arianespace’s third heavy-lift Ariane 5 mission of 2007 has been cleared for its Aug. 14 liftoff at the Spaceport in French Guiana. The company said all is ready for Ariane 5’s transfer from its final assembly building to the ELA-3 launch pad for the final countdown. The Ariane 5 carries a dual-passenger payload of Hughes Network Systems’ SPACEWAY 3 and B-SAT Corporation’s BSAT-3a satellites. In related news, SkyBOX will appear next Monday when BRIDGE Editor-in-Chief Evie Haskell returns from French Guiana after viewing the launch in person.

CORRECTIONS — EchoStar said there will be an activation fee for the ViP 622 and ViP 722 DVRs for both new and existing customers. The company said new customers will not receive the upgrade for free. Also, the company’s revenues increased 12 percent to $2.8 billion – not $2.8 million as mistakenly reported last week.

EchoStar detailed its second quarter performance in a filing the company made with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday, including a jump in subscribers that didn’t quite match last year’s 2Q efforts.

The company said its DISH Network service added about 170,000 net new subscribers during the three-month period, taking its total to 13.585 million. That compares to about 195,000 net additions for the same period last year.

EchoStar attributed the lower net subscriber gain to a number of factors, one of them being seasonality. Typically, subscribers churn at a higher rate during the second and third quarters each year than during the first and fourth quarters, the company said.

As for financials, EchoStar said second quarter net income grew to $224.2 million, compared to $168.8 million for the same period last year. Revenues jumped 12 percent to $2.8 million.

More details about EchoStar’s second quarter results should come out today during an investor conference call between executives and analysts.

AT&T has announced that AT&T Homezone(SM) customers can now access one of the nation’s most robust collections of High Definition (HD) content available: With more than 30 national HD channels — and additional local HD channels for each market — Homezone service offers customers access to more HD channels than its local cable competitors while providing thousands of video-on-demand titles, access to the system via wireless phones and more — all through a single receiver.

AT&T Homezone service integrates AT&T | DISH Network and features of AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet. It allows customers to enjoy satellite TV programming, net-based on-demand content, and music and photos via their TV screens and stereos. It also features digital videorecording technology and remote access to the system through Web-enabled PCs or WAP-2.0 compatible wireless phones.

The service is available across AT&T’s traditional 13-state broadband footprint to new and existing AT&T | DISH Network residential customers who either have or plan to order AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and the AT&T Wireless Gateway.*

The current HD channel lineup is provided by AT&T | DISH Network and includes a wide variety of programs, including news, sports, movies and more. The HD content delivered to Homezone customers produces images that are four times as detailed as standard definition (SD) TV and provides rich, realistic video and multichannel, movie-theater-quality sound.

Homezone service’s HD content, combined with the offerings of AT&T | DISH Network standard definition (SD) programming, and the wide variety of on-demand content available via strategic relationships with Movielink and Akimbo, further expands AT&T’s video portfolio — and offers end users more variety and choice than ever before.

“Our goal is to deliver a video solution that provides greater value, flexibility and simplicity than our competitors deliver,” said Rick Welday, chief marketing officer-AT&T Consumer. “Compelling features such as one of the largest lineups of HD programming offer our customers another reason why AT&T can be the only communications and entertainment company they will ever want.”

Customers can add the AT&T | DISH HD package to their entertainment experience. Through June 2007, new AT&T | DISH customers will be able to enjoy free HD channels for a year when they order qualifying SD and HD programming and packages. After the free year, AT&T | DISH Network HD programming will be $20 a month. The monthly $9.99 fee for Homezone service and $5.98 for digital videorecorder (DVR) functionality will remain the same.

The new HD programming complements other unique Homezone features, including:

– Remote access to the DVR, which allow customers to schedule recordings
with their compatible wireless phones and devices or by using their
AT&T Yahoo! Internet accounts.
– Up to 140 hours of TV recording capacity.
– A 30-second DVR skip feature, enabling customers to skip commercials
with the press of a button.
– Access to a library of more than 7,000 total on-demand titles -
including more than 1,000 full-length movies available on demand,
surpassing the on-demand movie libraries offered from cable.

AT&T Homezone service also complements AT&T U-verse(SM) TV, the company’s cutting-edge Internet Protocol (IP)-based television service. AT&T U-verse services are currently available in 21 markets, and the company plans to continue expanding the availability of these services on an ongoing basis. Although AT&T U-verse services will be the company’s primary video offer in available markets, both products underscore the company’s strategy to expand its video services portfolio, which also includes AT&T | DISH Network service.

With Homezone service, which launched in fall 2006, AT&T became the first national telecommunications provider to offer seamlessly integrated video content and TV entertainment to the “digital living room” through both broadband and traditional satellite networks. Awarded the 2007 North American Product of the Year by Frost & Sullivan, AT&T Homezone service integrates AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet, AT&T | DISH Network satellite television and AT&T home networking services via a single set-top device.

France Telecom subsidiary GlobeCast is bolstering its sports programming via a new five-year deal with international sports broadcaster Setanta Sports to distribute six channels through various platforms. The latest agreement between the two companies during their 13-year relationship, the distribution deal will include carriage of the new programming to Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision and DTT subscribers.

According to the companies, the deal comes on the heals of Setanta breaking Sky Sports’ Premiere League monopoly by winning the rights to two packages which will be broadcast on Setanta Sports 1 when the new season starts in August.

Globecast said its solution for the multichannel offering – including Setanta Sports 1 and 2, Setanta Golf, Rangers TV and Celtic TV – features the creation and management of a personalized multiplex system for the new offering and expansion of Setanta’s existing fiber network.

GlobeCast supplies capacity on the Eurobird satellite at 28.5 degrees east for uplink to the Sky Digital platform. The solution also includes fiber connectivity to Virgin Media, BT Vision and a number of other DTT platforms, the company said. GlobeCast delivers Setanta’s Australian channel and U.S. channel via its WorldTV DTH platform and is the broadcaster’s main provider of occasional use services.

From SkyReport

While many in the pay-TV world believe a merger between DIRECTV and EchoStar’s DISH Network remains a long shot, recent comments by John Malone have peaked people’s interest in the possibility that the two companies will work together for a brighter HDTV future. Reports have circulated that the Liberty Media big shot – and incoming DIRECTV boss – said the nation’s largest satellite TV provider may team up with its rival EchoStar on several high-def initiatives.

As has been widely reported, Liberty is preparing to take control of DIRECTV in a stock swap with former parent News Corp. The deal is expected to close sometime near mid-2007. Last week, Malone was quoted in industry press reports as saying he is excited about DIRECTV’s upcoming launch of two new satellites that will greatly expand the company’s HD capacity. The satellites will enable DIRECTV to offer up to 150 national HD channels.

Malone said although many observers believe the federal government would continue to disapprove of a merger deal, the companies could still work together on various projects, specifically HDTV. If the government won’t let the two companies join forces, the Liberty chair said they could save a lot of money by cooperating in certain areas.

“We could form an alliance with EchoStar and share a high-definition platform, which would either double the capacity or cut the costs in half,” Malone told Broadcasting & Cable. “We could develop content jointly with EchoStar for that high-definition platform, which would be very interesting.”