- - - SES Eyeing EchoStar Partnership? - - -

SES Astra, one of Europe's largest satellite operators, is looking to expand its presence into the Americas and is seeking a partner that will help it break into the market.

One of the companies at the top of the list - according to Wall Street - is EchoStar.

Tom Watts of Merrill Lynch said a deal between EchoStar and SES "is likely in the next few weeks."

A partnership "should help accelerate EchoStar.s broadband and capacity leasing businesses," Watts said. "DirecTV.s links to PanAmSat would likely present too great a conflict, leaving only EchoStar as a likely partner for SES in our view."

Bear Stearns' Vijay Jayant said EchoStar is a logical partner for SES given that it operates with DVB compatible technology, it has satellites and frequencies and access to a large customer base that could be sold services offered through a joint venture.

SES management said it's exploring partnership opportunities that will focus on Ka-Band based broadband services as well as television. Any deal could include an equity investment in the Americas-based partner, the company said.

In addition to its full-CONUS DBS slots, EchoStar has non-CONUS high-powered Ku-Band frequencies and Ka-Band authorizations. "SES should help EchoStar develop its unused capacity...and accelerate its broadband business," Watts said.

Said Jayant, "In our opinion, the aforementioned points, in aggregate, suggest that an SES-EchoStar partnership may be in the offing."

SES reported this week that both revenues and operating profit for the first half of the year increased 36 percent. The ASTRA DTH audience grew by 8 percent to 28 million homes. One of ASTRA's DTH clients is British Sky Broadcasting, backed by News Corp. and others.

- - - Hopes Jump For DTH Legislative Movement - - -

Washington insiders following the development of the Satellite Home Viewers Act said Tuesday it's likely conference committee staff members will meet this week, and the full committee may sit down for the first time as early as next week.

This Spring, both the House and the Senate passed bills addressing issues such as local-into-local network service and must-carry rules. Due to differences in each bill, however, merging the legislation has fallen to a Congressional conference committee. In the interim, some satellite TV customers have already lost their network service, with additional shut-offs scheduled for later this year.

Competing issues on the national agenda and Congressional recesses have deterred work on the new satellite legislation, although staffers have met to discuss jurisdictional issues related to revising the new legislation. Similar talks are rumored to be happening this week in anticipation of an upcoming conference committee meeting.

- - - PanAmSat Fights Lockheed/Comsat Deal - - -

PanAmSat filed an appeal outlining its objections regarding the Federal Communications Commission's approval for Lockheed Martin's purchase of a 49 percent stake in Comsat.

The commercial satellite operator said Lockheed's purchase would give it "de facto" control of Comsat, which it argued is a violation of law. PanAmSat also said the Lockheed/Comsat deal would "substantially" decrease competition in the commercial satellite business.

The appeal was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.

- - - DISH Flight Set-DirecTV Launch News Soon - - -

Much like previous storms that have threatened Cape Canaveral this month, Tropical Storm Harvey didn't pack much of a punch and left America's Space Coast alone.

Now that the storm has passed, crews with Lockheed Martin's International Launch Services are preparing the Atlas 2AS rocket that will carry EchoStar 5 into orbit. The flight is now scheduled for early Thursday morning, with the window opening at 1:07 a.m. Eastern Time.

DISH Network viewers can watch the launch on channel 100. Coverage begins at 9:30 Mountain Time tonight. Once in orbit, EchoStar 5 will help the company with its local-into-local efforts, given that Congress provides the necessary legislative fix.

Also today, a Starsem Soyuz rocket is slated to launch four Globalstar satellites from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch is scheduled for 10:33 a.m. Eastern Time. The flight is Globalstar's fourth aboard a Soyuz vehicle.

Meanwhile, news on DirecTV's launch of a new satellite - DirecTV 1R - is expected Thursday. Announcements could include a target launch date for the bird. Officials have said the flight may take place in early or mid October.

DirecTV 1R will be the first commercial flight for the Sea Launch platform, backed by Boeing and others. The satellite will fly aboard a Zenit 3SL rocket.

- - - PICK Transactions Promote Broadband Focus - - -

New Jersey-based PICK Communication's announced Tuesday that its wholly-owned subsidiary PICK Sat has granted Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN) an option to buy a 19.9 percent stake for $8 million.

The company has also granted ATN an 18-month option to buy an additional 31.1 percent of common stock for the greater 500,000 shares of ATN's stock or $15 million in cash, or a combination of cash and stock. If ATN fully exercises its options, it would own a majority stake in PICK Sat. The investment would provide working capital for an aggressive expansion of PICK Sat's satellite-based broadband Internet services.

ATN has already advanced some funds to PICK Sat. Payment of the initial $8 million is conditioned upon PICK Sat reaching certain performance benchmarks.

PICK Communications also announced the sale of its telecommunications units - PICK Net and PICK Net UK - to the newly-formed entity Lebow Investments.

Diego Leiva, chairman of PICK Communications, said, "The sale of our PICK Net telecommunications unit will improve our financial position and allow us to focus the company's full resources on the growth and development of PICK's satellite-based broadband Internet business."

- - - COMP WATCH: - - -

• New Report Surveys Bundled Services -
  Sixty-eight percent of consumers are likely to purchase bundled service packages and more than half of consumers would consider adding to their current telecommunications services if they were offered a discount on their total bill, according to a new report released by the New York-based research firm Horowitz Associates. The report is called "Bundled Service 2: A Study of the Residential Market for Bundled Cable, Telecommunications and Internet Package." For more information call 914-834-5999.

• CTAM Reports Consumer Awareness Jump -
  The August 1999 edition of CTAM Pulse explores the progress that digital TV has made in consumer awareness and understanding, updating research that was last conducted in May 1998. Among the research reported, the Pulse says that consumer awareness of digital TV increased from 50 percent in 1998 to 59 percent this year. For more information or the complete study, see www.ctam.com.

• Latest RCA Modem Exceeds DOCSIS Requirements -
  Thomson Consumer Electronics announced this week that the 100,000th unit shipment of the RCA DCM105 CableLabs digital cable modem is on schedule for early October. Thompson said the latest version of the modem has been enhanced with a variety of performance and software upgrades.

• AT&T BIS Picks Up New Networks -
  TRIO, the 24-hour channel featuring dramas, documentaries and films, and Newsworld International, the 24-hour international news channel, have signed affiliation agreements with Satellite Services, the programming arm of AT&T Broadband & Internet Services, which will now have distribution rights for both networks.

• U.K. Cable Customers Get VOD -
  NTL, the largest cable operator in England and Ireland, announced Tuesday it has signed an agreement with DIVA U.K. Limited and will commercially deploy Video On Demand (VOD) over its cable network in the United Kingdom next year. VOD will be delivered to NTL digital cable set-top boxes over the broadband network without the need for hardware upgrades or special installation.