- - - Ergen, Hartenstein Become Political Team - - -

Faced with a proposed compromise bill that, among other things, would apply must-carry rules to satellite TV companies and does not include non-discriminatory retransmission consent provisions, EchoStar Chairman and CEO Charlie Ergen and DirecTV President Eddy Hartenstein have drafted a joint letter to the Congressional Conference Committee working on the Satellite Home Viewers Act.

The document, which was penned on letterhead with both the EchoStar and DirecTV logos at the top, outlined key issues the two agree must be resolved in order for DBS to compete with cable.

"As the chief executives of the two largest DBS companies in the United States, we are writing to urge the Conference Committee to include certain provisions without which we will be unable to provide meaningful local-into-local service," it said. "If that happens, consumers will remain deprived of the competitive choice they desire and deserve."

The letter said that although EchoStar and DirecTV have separate plans for facilitating local-into-local service, they agree on the following points: The FCC should be directed to take into account the fundamental capacity and other differences between cable and satellite, as well as the public interest, in crafting must carry rules. The ability of consumers to choose a fully cable-competitive DBS service will be substantially delayed unless Congress includes a phase-in period for retransmission consent. Broadcasters should be prohibited from discriminating among multichannel video programming distributors with respect to retransmission consent. The network non-duplication, syndicated exclusivity and sports blackout rules should not be applied to DBS services. And eligible households must be able to get distant signals if they so choose, even if their DBS provider offers local signals in their market and even if they subscribe to local signals.

"On behalf of the more than ten million current satellite TV subscribers," the letter said, "and the additional tens of millions of consumers who would benefit from increased competition to cable, the above-listed provisions are the minimum needed to fulfill your stated goal of enabling DBS providers to offer a meaningful local-into-local service."

Hartenstein and Ergen will join Chuck Hewitt, president of the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association, Buddy Davis, president of Davis Antenna in Waldorf, Md. and Jeff LeHew, president of Via Satellite in Front Royal, Va. for a briefing in Washington today on the pending legislation.

- - - DirecTV Reorganizes Denver Operations - - -

DirecTV will augment its Colorado area presence by establishing a permanent business operations hub at its existing office in Englewood, the company said Monday.

That office is expected to grow to several hundred employees. However, DirecTV also confirmed plans to end operations at the former Primestar customer care center in Englewood.

The company said about 100 people currently work at one Englewood facility, supporting activities related to DirecTV's Primestar acquisition earlier this year. An additional 150 employees will be hired to staff a new support organization called DirecTV Home Services, which will operate at that same location.

However DirecTV plans to close another Denver-area facility that it took over after acquiring Primestar. The company said approximately 450 employees there were notified this week of the pending closure. John McKee, senior vice president and general manager of Primestar by DirecTV said, "We expect many of our customer care representatives will fill the available positions in our new Home Services unit, and we will also conduct a job fair in mid-November with local employers who are now actively engaged in hiring customer service representatives."

DirecTV's Colorado facilities also include a digital broadcast center in Castle Rock with about 165 employees.

- - - XM Signs Agreement With Motorola - - -

XM Satellite Radio and Motorola have signed an agreement allowing Motorola to design, develop, produce and market XM-capable receivers for the automotive market.

XM is developing a direct satellite-to-receiver radio broadcasting system. Motorola already supplies integrated electronics solutions to General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Nissan.

XM's digital audio radio service will cost $9.95 a month and is scheduled to launch during the first half 2001. It will feature up to 100 channels of music, news, sports, talk and children's programming.

- - - Eutelsat's Hot Birds Reach 81 Million - - -

Eutelsat said Tuesday its annual survey of the number of homes in Europe, North Africa and large parts of the Middle East watching satellite-delivered television showed spectacular growth this year.

The survey determined that in 1999, 107 million households in those regions are getting satellite television, either through a dish or from a local cable provider. That's up from 95 million in 1998. Of that total, 42.7 million are dish homes and 66.4 million are connected to a cable network.

The survey was produced for Eutelsat by various research institutes including GfK, Gallup and Nielsen. It involved data from 36 countries and nearly 100,000 interviews.

Via its five Hot Bird satellites at 13 degrees East Longitude, Eutelsat's installed base of receiving households has grown to 81.1 million homes (24 million satellite and 58.2 million cable), representing an increase of more than 10 million homes in 12 months. The Hot Bird satellites broadcast a total of 420 digital and 30 analogue television channels as well as 250 radio channels.

- - - COMPETITIVE WATCH: - - -

• Insight To Carry Oxygen Network -
  Oxygen Media, the new information and entertainment company for women, has reached an agreement with Insight Communications, the eighth largest cable operator in the U.S. with more than one million customers, to distribute the Oxygen network. The new 24-hour network will launch early next year and will be integrated with Oxygen's online service.

• MediaOne To Sell Billions in Debt Securities -
  MediaOne Group plans to sell up to $5 billion in debt securities. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes and possibly loans to its affiliates, according to Reuters.

• Customer Care Company Changes Name -
  CableData, a billing and customer management company for the global broadband, telecommunications and utility industries, has changed its named to DST Innovis. The company said the new name better reflects the full range of industries it services.