re: I thought these guys went belly up...
AlphaStar Rises Again As TV Webcaster
multichannel.com
[fac: Webcaster, Direct to Home, then Hybrid Satellite/Wireless Hub ISP using IP exclusively, in rapid succession. Hmm.. the bolding below is mine, btw.]
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AlphaStar Rises Again As TV Webcaster
By MONICA HOGAN September 6, 1999
From the ashes of AlphaStar Television Network, the company's current owner, Mahmoud Wahba, has decided to abandon television to focus on video streaming. Now called AlphaStarWebcasting.com, Inc., the company has spent the past six months creating a global Web site that aggregates live television stations, movies, Webcams and other video programming from all over the world.
Asked why he held on to the AlphaStar name, Wahba replied: "Because it's a brand name. It's tarnished -- no doubt about it -- but it's a brand name just the same."
The AlphaStar medium-power satellite service went bankrupt two years ago, following an unsuccessful attempt to gain share in a direct-broadcast satellite market dominated by smaller-dish systems. Wahba bought the remaining assets, including its Oxford, Conn., satellite facility, several months later.
The East Coast teleport location allows AlphaStar to downlink satellite feeds from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and South America, as well as North America, Wahba said. This makes the Web site attractive to a wide audience.
"The minute you're able to put video on the Internet, [fac: scratch scratch] you've done three things," Wahba said. "It suddenly becomes global. It has the ability to become interactive. And you know who your viewer is and what advertisements he watches."
AlphaStar plans to promote its new Web site sometime in mid-September, but the site has already received hits -- and e-mail -- from Web users across the world, Wahba said. The site will have more than 50 television channels at launch, and has signed agreements for 75.
[fac: Am I missing something here? Is Wahba talking about Video/IP?]
Although many of the channels already have their own Internet sites, Wahba believes having one global aggregator will help the programmers attract more eyeballs.
"People don't want to go to hundreds of pages to find different television stations," he said. "We will become a portal for world television."
Most of the international television stations that AlphaStar receives via satellite for use on its Web site are government-supported stations, which means AlphaStar has not yet had to address thorny copyright issues. The U.S. television channels it carries, such as Bloomberg and C-SPAN, are there by way of Internet links, not satellite.
The timing was right to consider a video-streaming business for a number of reasons [fac: yep, I guess he is], according to Wahba. More Web users are moving to high-speed Internet access, and new multicasting software from Real Networks Inc., Microsoft Corp. and others brings video streaming picture quality closer than ever to broadcast television quality.
The company may eventually offer subscription-based programming as an add-on, Wahba said. At that point, AlphaStar would need to negotiate license fees and copyright arrangements with networks.
"Internet streaming will probably lead to a change in the copyright laws," Wahba predicted. "How do you define franchises globally?"
Before the company offers subscription programming, there may be opportunities to charge one-time fees for special events, such as concerts and sporting events, especially those that appeal to a global audience.
AlphaStar also hopes its wide reach will lead to electronic-commerce opportunities. The company is already testing interactive video technology on its site that will allow users to view products or real estate from a 360-degree angle using a roving camera technique.
"There are things that can be done on the Internet that can't be done with traditional television," Wahba said.
Specialized video programming will be developed just for the Internet [fac: you listening to this, DH? This corroborates and is the primary reason behind avoiding all forms of analog on the xtth], Wahba said. AlphaStar has signed agreements with a handful of content companies, including ZeroOneFilms.com Inc., a 24-hour movie streaming service run by Wahba's two filmmaker sons.[??]
Wahba said he expects to take AlphaStar public someday. That could be a true test of the brand's resilience.
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For more articles about this rebirth, search on the term "AlphaStar" at:
multichannel.com
It seems as though they've been reborn a half dozen different ways.
FAC |
