- - - AT&T Responds To AOL/@Home Speculation - - -

AT&T and Excite@Home said they are looking into deals tied to AT&T's stake in the cable Internet provider, but wouldn't reveal if there is an agreement in the works with America Online.

In a brief statement responding to recent speculation over an AT&T/AOL deal, the broadband cable giant said it has "periodically explored, and we continue to explore, many alternatives with respect to our Internet strategy and our ownership interest in Excite@Home.

"The alternatives include internal options as well as discussions with third parties," the company said. "The exploration of alternatives remains at the very preliminary stage, and at this time, AT&T has not made any decision to pursue any particular alternative or transaction."

Excite@Home said in a statement that its management team, "in conjunction with our cable partners, has periodically explored, and will continue to explore, many alternatives for maximizing shareholder value."

An AOL/AT&T deal would give the Internet service provider access to high-speed cable connections and millions of customers. AOL has an agreement in place with DirecTV for its developing AOL TV effort.

- - - DirecTV President Talks On Interactivity - - -

DirecTV President Eddy Hartenstein presented the DBS provider's view of the interactive TV realm and where the company thinks that world is heading during what he called his first formal address to a Silicon Valley crowd.

Hartenstein, speaking at The Carmel Group's Convergence .99 seminar in Santa Clara, Calif., recognized that both the computer and broadcasting industries have notched up a few failures in trying to combine television and interactivity.

"What these failures have shown, and what a number of studies have confirmed, is that most consumers are not ready for the 'teleputer,'" Hartenstein said. "Customers tend to approach TV passively seeking entertainment. By contrast, they approach computers and the Internet actively. They want to be engaged, usually for business or social purposes."

All of that, however, could change in a few years. "Our teenagers do so much multi-tasking they might as well have teleputers," Hartenstein said. "For instance, a friend of mine can't go into his daughter's bedroom without finding her simultaneously on the phone while she watches TV and types comments online into her favorite chat room.

"For the majority of the buying public, we can only go as fast as the public is willing to follow us," he said. "And the approach we have taken at DirecTV is that we will try to anticipate our customers' desires and provide added value when and where we can."

- - - If You Thought Last Week Was Busy - - -

Last week was an unusually busy period for satellite launch companies across the globe, with five rockets carrying eight new birds into space.

Mid-October is shaping up to be another crunch period for launch contractors, with four flights scheduled to take up to 10 pieces of spacecraft into orbit. They include the much-anticipated Sea Launch effort involving DirecTV's next satellite, the flight of Loral Orion 2 aboard an Arine rocket and four more Globalstar birds that will be carried by a Soyuz vehicle.

When Air Force flights involving Titan and Delta rockets are added in, the first half of October will see six rocket launches with 11 satellites and spacecraft.

For a chart outlining launches, go to: www.skyreport.com/#sat. Please note, all launches are tentative.

Last week, there were a number of key launches for DBS, commercial satellite entities and others. They were: The Sept 22 Soyuz launch of another cluster of Globalstar satellites; Sept. 23 lift-off of a Lockheed Martin Atlas rocket with EchoStar 5; the Sept. 24 launch of a Lockheed Martin Athena 2 rocket with the Ikonos imaging satellite; the Sept. 25 launch of an Ariane rocket with Loral Skynet's Telstar 7; and the Sept. 26 flight of a Proton rocket with Lockheed Martin's Intersputnik-1 satellite.

- - - Black Market Surfaces In Canada - - -

While Canadian DBS services continue to shrink the number gray market dishes from the United States, they've come up against a new problem: Black market satellite equipment.

Services like Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice have given Canada's gray market, which relies on U.S. DBS programming sources, the competition it needs. The small dish offerings have squelched that cloudy business with local programming, a lot of hockey and other truly-Canadian content.

However, they are now contending with a serious threat of pirated access control cards and black market equipment that observers say amounts to stealing.

"We feel we can compete against the gray market. We have a lot of local Canadian programming, a lot of pay-per-view and other content," Bell ExpressVu's Paula Thompson said. "But the black market - that is outright theft."

Bell ExpressVu has filed a $15 million (U.S.) suit against "The Spot," an independent satellite dealer the company accuses of distributing illegal black market DBS systems in Canada. Bell ExpressVu said evidence suggests the dealer sold "large quantities of black market DBS systems, which have been hacked so subscribers do not have to pay monthly TV programming fees."

It's the second suit Bell ExpressVu has filed against an alleged distributor of black market equipment. The first case was brought against a West Toronto entity called "Tedmonds."

In general, the pirated systems are decoding U.S. programming services. Thompson said Bell ExpressVu equipment, which comes from EchoStar, hasn't been hacked. The boxes use Nagra encryption technology.

Thompson couldn't provide a number of subscribers impacted by Canada's black market. The gray market, however, has fallen from 300,000 to around 200,000 with the continued growth of DBS services, she said.

- - - PROGRAMMING: - - -

• DISH Celebrates Kids Show -
  EchoStar's DISH Network is celebrating the one-year anniversary of DISH for Kids, the weekly show on DISH's channel 100 is designed to give kids a sneak preview of family-oriented programs.

• STARZ!/Encore Free Preview This Weekend -
  This weekend, DISH Network and DirecTV customers can watch STARZ!/Encore premium channels, including BET Movies, for free during the "Billion Dollar Box Office Free Preview Weekend."

• Showtime Launches Spanish Feed -
  Showtime Networks added a Spanish-language Second Audio Program feed to all Showtime and The Movie Channel screens today. The company reports that approximately 90 percent of all programming will be available in Spanish. Showtime also has announced upcoming original family movies. They include "Mermaid," starring Ellen Burstyn; "Ratz," starring Kathy Baker; and "Finding Buck McHenry," starring Ossie Davis.

• QVC Announces Benefit Shoe Sale -
  QVC will kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month 1999 with "FFANY Shoes on Sale," the Fashion Footwear Association of New York's sixth annual fundraiser to benefit breast cancer research and education. Throughout the month, over 120,000 pairs of designer shoes will be offered on the shopping network for half price.

• ESPN Highlights Skateboarding History -
  ESPN will relive one of "the most memorable and thrilling moments in alternative sports history" with a 30-minute special called "Tony Hawk's 900" on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The show highlights an event that occurred at the fifth X Games in which legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, 31, successfully completed a trick he spent his entire career attempting to master. The special will be repeated on Tuesday, Oct. 19 at 3 p.m.

• Hollywood Salutes Jodie Foster -
  Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster will be honored by her peers during "Hollywood Salutes Jodie Foster: An American Cinematheque Tribute," a 90-minute special premiering on TNT Sunday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. ET. The show will be hosted by David Hyde Pierce.