A Chinese rocket sucessfully launched Nigeria’s first satellite, according to BBC News. The satellite will reach its final position in orbit later this year and remain in operation for a decade and half.

On Nielsen Media Research’s blog Follow The Video, Larry Gerbrandt, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Nielsen Analytics, looks at how the XM-Sirius takeover/merger compares to a potential merger between satellite television providers DirecTV and Dish Network. While the satradio companies are now looking for FCC approval, the two sattv companies have already [...]

According to their Press Release, a company that calls itself “Satellite TV for PC” is now offering a satellite TV service that only requires a one-time software download fee (right now its around 50 bucks) for unlimited access to over 3000 satellite TV channels worldwide, with no monthly billing. As great as the idea [...]

A Staten Island man was arrested this week on charges of providing people with satellite transmissions of the Hezbollah-controlled TV station “Al Manar,” which translates from Arabic as “The Beacon.” For years, Javed Iqbal has operated a small business (called HDTV Ltd.) out of his home and storefront that provides viewers with access to [...]

When released a year ago, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt’s “Current TV” project was laughed at. The San Francisco-based satellite and cable TV station features almost exclusively user-generated content, in six to eight minute programming blocks. Now, however, the format that was once thought of as silly has become huge–albeit on the internet, [...]

A recent agreement between Cox Cable and DVR-mogul TiVo will allow present Cox subscribers to easily adopt TiVo-branded DVR technology. By making its software compatible with Cox-issued DVR boxes, TiVo is making it possible for Cox subscribers to use its technology without having to replace the DVR boxes that they currently use. This [...]

Thanks to a scoop from Lost Remote, I just learned that XM will be dropping MSNBC from its list of channels. Apparently, the change was made as a result of “changes in the MSNBC scheduling lineup.” This move was kept very quiet (see XM’s site for evidence of this) and has left [...]

Wherify Wireless Inc. has just announced an October 1st release date for its Wherifone Service, the primary in-store retailer of which will be Toys R Us. The phones will retail for roughly $100 and require independent service that costs roughly $20 a month. Much like Verizon’s Chaperone service, Wherify offers parents the ability [...]

Several recent run-ins with the legal system have almost brought EchoStar to its knees. A Federal Court ruling has left EchoStar owing around $90 million in damages and with the orders to stop producing its DVR equipment because it violates TiVo patents and to turn off DVR service entirely within 30 days. And [...]

In the last year, Satellite TV providers DirecTV and EchoStar experienced a 29% drop-off in the rate of net new subscribers, while the rate of defection from cable television has also decreased by almost half since the previous year. Analysts are in disgreement over the causes of this slow-down.
Many attribute cable’s gains to [...]