Dish Network seems to be within months of a legislative victory that would free it from a ban on distant signal importation, as Congress moves forward with satellite reauthorization legislation. The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans the first action on the bill in a hearing Wednesday. The House Commerce Committee will take up the bill soon, said a committee aide. The House and Senate Judiciary committees have passed separate versions of the bill leaving the details far from certain, say several congressional officials and lobbyists.
ViaSat will acquire WildBlue Communications for about $568 million, dramatically changing ViaSat’s role in the satellite broadband industry and presenting an immediate use for its newest satellite, ViaSat 1, when it launches in 2011. The acquisition allows ViaSat to quickly join satellite broadband providers without investing a great deal of money in infrastructure, the company said Thursday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously okayed the satellite TV modernization Act (S-1670), with one amendment and a brief debate that ended with Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., emphasizing the importance of passing a clean bill. The House Judiciary Committee already passed its version of the reauthorization legislation (CD Sept 17 p3), but markups are still needed in the House and Senate Commerce committees.
A new company formed by Harbinger Capital Partners will acquire SkyTerra for $277.5 million and take the publicly traded company private, if shareholders and regulators approve, SkyTerra announced Wednesday. The new company, yet to be named, would pay $5 a share, 56 percent more than the closing price Tuesday, SkyTerra said. The company’s stock price surged almost 39 percent to $4.71 Wednesday in response to news of the acquisition.
Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), long a provider of internal corporate communications systems, have found a new niche in providing rural Internet service and Internet backup for governments and businesses, industry officials said. While terrestrial fiber lines can provide far faster speeds, VSAT offers higher reliability, functioning without costly infrastructure when land lines are down, a major issue during natural disasters, they said.
Lobbying on the Satellite Home Viewer Extension and Reauthorization Act grew substantially in the first half of the year, an analysis of public disclosure records showed.
Despite an increase in subscribers and a boost from the DTV transition, Dish Network saw profits drop substantially, the company said Monday. It reported a Q2 profit of $63 million, down some 81 percent from the same period last year.
Despite an increase in subscribers and a boost from the DTV transition, Dish Network saw profits drop substantially, the company said Monday. It reported a Q2 profit of $63 million, down some 81 percent from the same period last year.
Sirius XM is still losing customers just more than a year since the company’s high-profile merger. It report Thursday a 1 percent decrease to 18.4 million Q2 from 18.6 million a year earlier. Sirius XM lost about 186,000 subscribers during Q2. The company’s take rate fell to 44.4 percent from 50.6 percent a year earlier.
The RUS’s definition of “remote” in the notice of funds availability has stirred complaints from potential applicants and oversight committees. But this isn’t the first time that the agency has had problems defining the most rural areas.