DirecTV's high-power satellite service acquired 120,000 net new customers in January, representing a new record for the month and a 32 percent increase in net customer acquisitions over January 1999. An additional 80,000 customers were transitioned to the high power service from the medium-power PrimeStar By DirecTV service last month. Those transitions, which are not included in the net additions for January, take the total number of PrimeStar conversions to 550,000. DirecTV said it now serves more than 8.1 million customers, a number that includes both the high-power and the medium-power service.

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SBCA Cautions FCC On Program Exclusivity

The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission Monday on the application of network non-duplication, syndicated exclusivity and sports blackout rules for satellite. In its comments, the SBCA cautioned the commission against "importing mechanistically into the satellite arena the rules applicable to cable systems." "Rather," SBCA said, "the commission must apply syndex, non-duplication and sports blackout requirements in a manner that takes into account the distinctive characteristics of nationwide satellite coverage and associated issues of technical feasibility and cost." Specifically, SBCA said the logistics, encryption and software requirements that would be involved in scrambling different parts of the programming of a nationwide superstation feed for a mosaic of 35-mile zones scattered throughout the country are so overwhelming that they simply cannot be overlooked in any attempt to impose meaningful blackout regulations. If applied like cable's rules, they would likely result in the cessation of superstation satellite retransmissions by the satellite providers and a substantial loss for consumers, SBCA said. The commission's goal of facilitating competition in the multichannel video marketplace would not be enhanced if current cable rules were applied to satellite providers, SBCA said. The association also noted that Congress didn't ask for cable rules to be applied to satellite, but rather sought a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the issue. "The goals of SHVIA would remain unattained - indeed, would be resoundingly defeated - if the operation of the law itself were to ironically create yet another respect in which satellite carriers would be made less attractive than cable operators because of a legal constraint," SBCA said. SBCA filed comments in support of the DBS platform providers and filed separate comments on behalf of its member companies which offer satellite service to C-Band subscribers.

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Loral Loss Widens

Loral's net loss widened for fourth quarter and full-year 1999 results. The net loss for 1999 was $247 million, compared to a net loss in 1998 of $185 million. The increased loss was attributed to increased costs with Globalstar and other Loral ventures. Loral's fourth quarter loss widened to $112.9 million, or 42 cents a share, from a loss of $53.7 million, or 23 cents, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell 9 percent to $426.2 million from $468.6 million. Loral's satellite manufacturing arm, Space Systems Loral, recorded a $36 million charge related to a contract extension for a satellite it's building for ChinaSat. The satellite will be delivered during the summer. Loral will provide transponders aboard one of its birds while work is completed on the ChinaSat spacecraft.

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Globalstar Launch This Afternoon

This afternoon, a Boeing Delta 2 will launch four Globalstar communications satellites that will be used as on-orbit spares. The flight will complete the 52-satellite Globalstar constellation. Forty-eight of the satellites deliver the core sat-phone service. The launch will take place from pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The launch window opens at 3:54 p.m. Eastern Time and closes at 4:24 p.m. *

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TECH: Thomson Invests In Metabyte Unit