SkyREPORT.COM News Headlines
News Update For 3/02/00
Iridium Bondholers To Sue Motorola
A U.S. bankruptcy judge gave the OK to Iridium's bondholders to sue Motorola, the sat-phone company's main backer, for more than $1 billion. Bondholders needed court permission due to the Chapter 11 status involving Iridium. Iridium filed for bankruptcy last August. An investment group led by McCaw wants to salvage the sat-phone provider. While Motorola would retain a stake in a reorganized operation, it's expected that McCaw will eventually take over the troubled company. Under McCaw's plan, the interests of unsecured debt holders and holders of existing Iridium common stock would likely be worthless. Iridium owes about $1.45 billion to bondholders.
Pegasus-Liberate In Interactive Deal
Pegasus Communications picked Liberate Technologies to deliver interactive television services to subscribers of Pegasus' DirecTV service. The Liberate service should be available later in the year. Pegasus said it plans to distribute new interactive television services to existing subscribers and new customers signed up through the Pegasus Retail Network. The Liberate agreement also will enable the introduction of additional Pegasus-branded advanced digital services. Pegasus delivers DirecTV through the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative.
DirecTV Adds Missing Stations
On Wednesday, DirecTV added stations missing from some of its local channel packages. Stations added to the DirecTV local channel mix are WFAA (ABC) in Dallas, KHOU (CBS) in Houston and KING (NBC) in Seattle. The additions complete DirecTV's offerings in those cities. In the markets it serves, the DBS company is delivering local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliate stations. The DirecTV package, which comes with a national PBS feed, sells for $5.99 a month. DirecTV was actively negotiating retransmission agreements with the three stations since the debut of local channels in the affected markets.
Starz/Encore Delivers Free Weekend
Starz/Encore will deliver a free preview of its premium movie channels to DBS customers. The preview takes place this weekend, March 3-5. DISH Network customers can tune to channels 340, 342, 350 and 351. DirecTV customers can watch the preview on channels 520 through 533. Movies included in the preview include Blast From the Past, Shakespeare in Love, Meet Joe Black, Lost In Space, A Civil Action, Armageddon, October Sky, Rush Hour and Patch Adams.
INTL: TiVo Scores Deal With BSkyB
- TiVo Scores Deal With BSkyB - Personal TV company TiVo scored a deal with British Sky Broadcasting that will allow subscribers of the satellite service to get digital video recorder technology. The announcement marks TiVo's first international deal. In the United States, TiVo is working with DirecTV and Philips.
- Gilat Eyeing Latin America? - Gilat Satellite Networks will establish a satellite Internet venture in Latin America with backing from Israeli and U.S. investors, the Globes business daily reported this week. According to the newspaper, Gilat also plans a $60 million venture with U.S. financier Michael Milken to offer remote teaching and employee training services.