- - - EchoStar 5 Takes Off From Cape - - -

LITTLETON, Colo. - EchoStar employees at the company's headquarters here cheered as the DBS provider's fifth satellite and its rocket cleared pad 36A at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.

Early Thursday morning, EchoStar 5 was put into a transfer orbit, in preparation for its final destination at 110 degrees, by an Atlas 2AS rocket.

Chairman Charlie Ergen said the satellite will help the company with local channels, HDTV and data services. He also reiterated the need for new legislation and getting Congress "to allow us to compete with cable and let us deliver local channels."

The satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, Calif., is a key item in the company's effort to offer local channels.

- - - DirecTV Launch Target Set Oct. 10 - - -

It's expected that the launch target date for DirecTV's next satellite, DirecTV 1R, will be Oct. 10.

The rocket and satellite will launch from the ocean-based Sea Launch platform. An official announcement regarding the DirecTV launch is expected today from the DBS provider and Sea Launch.

Just like EchoStar's launch of its fifth satellite, the flight of DirecTV 1R isn't set in stone. The Oct. 10 date is considered a target.

The $500 million Sea Launch project has been under development for the past four years. Boeing owns 40 percent of the consortium. Partners include RSC Energia of Russia, KB Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash of the Ukraine and Norway's Kvaerner.

- - - Loral Starts-Ends Busy Week For Launches - - -

In addition to EchoStar 5, Globalstar and its main backer Loral Space and Communications celebrated Wednesday's successful lift-off of four more low-earth-orbit satellites that will support the worldwide sat-phone system.

The Globalstar flight, which occurred aboard a Soyuz-Ikar rocket launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, initiated a busy week for rocket launches involving U.S. companies. The launch brings the total number of Globalstar satellites now in space to 40.

Meanwhile, an Ariane rocket will launch a satellite for Loral Skynet on Saturday.

Telstar 7, the satellite that will anchor Skynet's cable neighborhood, will be carried aboard an Ariane-4 rocket from the European Space Agency's launch center in Kourou, French Guiana. Lift-off is set to happen between 3.29 a.m. and 4.29 a.m. Eastern Time.

- - - House Working On Intelsat Legislation - - -

House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley is drafting legislation that would turn Intelsat into a private company, according to sources.

A similar bill approved by the Senate in July would clear the way for Lockheed Martin to complete its purchase of COMSAT. COMSAT was created by Congress in 1962 to exclusively sell Intelsat's services in the United States. The Senate measure would require Intelsat to turn private by Jan. 1, 2002.

Bliley's move comes after the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission approved Lockheed's purchase of a 49 percent stake in COMSAT.

- - - Star Choice Tackles Competitor Claims - - -

Star Choice Communications has dismissed competitor Bell ExpressVu's claims that it's outselling Star Choice in the Canadian DTH marketplace.

Star Choice also said it will demand through legal counsel that Bell ExpressVu issue a public retraction of all "incorrect and misleading statements."

Said Richard Stursberg, president and CEO of Star Choice, "Dealers are telling us that Star Choice outsold Bell ExpressVu over the summer by a large margin, and we expect to do so throughout the fall because we have a superior product and a superior dealer network.

"We don't know how Bell ExpressVu counts their subscribers, but we do know that Star Choice reports only bona fide, current subscribers - of which we now have more than a quarter of a million."

The success of a "repatriation" campaign, which is an offer by Bell ExpressVu to give a free system to any Star Choice customer willing to switch services, has also been overstated. "In the two and a half months that the campaign has been going, Bell ExpressVu has netted less than a thousand Star Choice customers," Stursberg said.

Bell ExpressVu announced last week it has more than 300,000 subscribers. With combined Star Choice/ExpressVu numbers, Canada's DBS count stands at more than 500,000.

- - - INTERNATIONAL: - - -

• EU Probes BSkyB Soccer Deal -
  The European Commission has reopened an informal investigation into the Premier League's $1.2 billion soccer deal to sell television rights to satellite television provider British Sky Broadcasting and the BBC. According to the Financial Times, the commission wants to establish whether the centralized selling of Premier League matches breaks EU rules forbidding cartels.

• SatMex, Interlink Ink Internet Deal -
  Satelites Mexicanos (SatMex) has signed a contract with North American high-speed Internet access provider Interlink Communications for coverage of Central and South America through the Solidaridad 2 satellite. The transponder contract will allow Interlink to use the bird's C-band capacity to provide high-speed, asymmetric interconnection to and from Latin America.

• Austar Offers Interactive Television -
  Australian pay-TV operator Austar Entertainment has unveiled its first interactive TV service using OpenTV technology and its 24-hour Weather21 news channel. The company plans to seek out agreements with other networks in order to expand its interactive television services.

• ICG Furthers Argentinean Communications -
  Colorado-based ICG Satellite Services has signed its third service agreement with Telefonica Larga Distancia de Argentina (TLDA) to provide three separate asymmetric 3 4/8 Mbps satellite circuits on Intelsat 801 and Intelsat 707. The deal is part of an ongoing investment by TLDA to improve infrastructure in Argentina and enhance communications services there.

• Hughes Subsidiary Announces Stock Offering -
  Hughes Electronics has announced plans to float its Indian subsidiary, Hughes Software Systems, on the Bombay stock market. The company will offer 4.375 million shares in an effort to raise $46 million.