Fresh from yesterday’s New York Times:
Intelsat plans to announce today that it has agreed to acquire a rival, the PanAmSat Holding Corporation, creating the world’s largest operator of satellites that distribute data and video programming for clients.
Intelsat, which is a private company, will pay $3.2 billion, or $25 a share, for PanAmSat, executives at [...]

In case you’re ever in your hotel room on Sunday and you’re sick of HBO and Super Nintendo games, now you can turn on the game. LodgeNet, which provides interactive TV systems in 6,000 hotels worldwide, will offer DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, allowing you to follow your team even when you’re not at home. NFL [...]

Catching up with XM, Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast traffic data for 22 metropolitan areas beginning in November, a service that XM has offered for a while now. Updated traffic information provided by NAVTEQ will be available for Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, [...]

Sirius announced today that it will launch one of its two Howard Stern channels in September, four months before Stern himself makes the jump from Infinity. As Howard is contractually obligated to not appear on Sirius before December 31st, it’s still unclear what the content of the channel will be, but it’s possible that we [...]

Sirius announced today that it will release a portable radio called the S50, the company’s answer to XM’s MyFi portable. How do the two shape up? The two portables are similar in concept but different in execution. For one, Sirius’ portable must be connected to a home or car dock to play live programming, while [...]

Number two satellite TV provider Dish Network is willing to give away its service to every resident of a town for 10 years - as long as the town renames itself to “Dish,” or preferably, “DISH.” Until November 1st, the company will accept submissions for the free satellite service, in a move reminiscent of Half.com’s [...]

If you remember when MTV played music, then you’ll remember original VJ Martha Quinn, who comes to Sirius this month to host a show on its Big ’80s channel. Her show, Martha Quinn Presents…Gods of the Big ’80s, will debut August 27th on Sirius, where she’ll join former MTV VJs Mark Goodman, Nina Blackman, and [...]

XM Satellite Radio announced a new partnership with Suzuki to put their radios in two of Suzuki’s ‘06 models for the first time this fall. Beginning in mid-September, the Suzuki Grand Vitara and Suzuki XL-7 sports utility vehicles will come XM ready with hardware already installed just as a number of other cars do under [...]

According to recent figures, a total of 27 percent of all homes are satellite subscribers - a remarkable increase from 19 percent just a year ago and 12 percent five years ago. Meanwhile, cable subscribers fell from 66 percent in 2000 to 62 percent last year down to 60 percent this year. Analysts attribute the [...]

Despite having less than half of XM’s audience and not even a third of the terrestrial audience, Sirius is expected to charge $20,000 for a live read ad on Howard Stern’s radio show when he makes the switch to Sirius in 2006, roughly the same cost as a live read on Stern’s current terrestrial radio [...]