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Technology Stocks : Loral Space & Communications -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Valueman who wrote (1959)	2/17/1998 12:56:00 PM
From: Valueman	Respond to of 10852

Will Loral buy L-Star and go forward with the joint venture with Modi in India? Remember that L-Star is pure Ku-Band, no C-band. This article seems to say that Ku-band transmission is not legal at this time in India. Also note the opportunity that arises when AsiaSat 3 was lost and AsiaSat1 is nearing end of life. Transponder rates are also mentioned in the $2-3 million/transponder/year range--that is significantly higher than is noted by many sat operators. Also note a comment that AsiaSat will have a new sat up by yearend--how this is possible, I am not sure. STAR'S PLANS CRASH WITH ASIASAT-3 STAR TV's plan to move on to a new satellite, AsiaSat-3 has remained a non-starter. The communication satellite Asiasat-3 has failed to dock into its designated orbit and it has been written off as a failure, The heap of equipment will now get sucked into the earth's gravitational pull and gradually orbit towards a crash-landing, The satellite, launched on December 26 on a Russian-made Proton booster, was parked in a slot short of its geocentric orbit when the final stage of the rocket reportedly did not fire. Attempts at correcting the orbit have reportedly failed. For Star TV, which had put a lot of its eggs in the AsiaSat-3 basket, this has meant a big setback. Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd., the three-way joint venture consisting of the Chinese government-owned China Investment Trust (CITC), the international telecommunication group Cable and Wireless and Hutchinson, was expected to generate about $ 29 million in transponder lease revenue annually. While AsiaSat will recover the failed satellite's costs from insurance, for Star TV it is a major opportunity lost. Currently, all the Star and Zee channels beamed at India, except Music Asia which is on PAS-4, are on AsiaSat-l. With the AsiaSat-l's life nearing an end, Star TV had booked 12 transponders on AsiaSat-3 and planned to shift operations onto the new satellite. With the shift, Star had also planned to change from the current analog transmission to digitally compressed signals. As against the normal ratio of one transponder for each channel, digital compression would have allowed the broadcaster to beam up to five channels off each of the 36 MHz transponders. This would have created an offering of up to 60 STAR channels for the subcontinent. The AsiaSat-3 fiasco has to be also seen in the context of Star TV's direct-to-home (DTH) plans having been put on hold on account of the Union government's ban on all and Ku-Band transmissions. The DTH bouquet of channels, originally slated for. transmission in Ku-Band Off PanAmSat-4, were being reworked by STAR as legally permitted C-Band transmission off AsiaSat-. Since digitally compressed signals require a decoder box for unscrambling, encryption would first ensure that the Star 'bouquet' turn 'pay'. Initially, the decoder box would be with the cable operators. But with 'pay' culture introduced, Star hoped to gradually and simultaneously create a C-Band direct-to-home (DTH) subscriber base. With the collapse of AsiaSat-3, the plans for a backdoor DTH entry have also been dashed. Senior Star sources admitted that plans for high quality picture and sound reproduction will have to be shelved and the broadcaster would have to live with the current quality of transmission. With transponder rentals varying between $ 2-3 million a piece annually, we were hoping to cut costs by squeezing several channels on to one transponder. We have to now rework our budgets, rued one senior Star official. Stuck with analog transmission off AsiaSat-1, it is almost certain that Star's plans for an array of channels for India will have to be shelved for some time. AsiaSat-1's other customers too don't have much time either, Experts say the satellite's original life span normally about 7 years was to expire this March. But a 'technical boost' will now allow it to function normally till 1999. The Zee Network channels will also have to look at other options. If AsiaSat-3 went up, we would have certainly shifted to the new platform. However, there is ample transponder capacity on other satellites so we are not too worried, a Zee company spokesperson claimed. Declining to comment on the financial implications of AsiaSat-3's failure on STAR TV, Ms Ela Wong, NewsCorp's Hong Kong-based general counsel, said STAR had been informed that AsiaSat Telecom hoped to have a new satellite up by the year-end. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Valueman who wrote (1959)	2/17/1998 12:59:00 PM
From: JMD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10852

Valueman, whether one wishes to categorize these folks as nasty scavengers or adroit opportunists is a very subjective call. What is not subjective is the fact that the "boys" are moving in. See last Friday's WSJ--Coca Cola, American International Group (AIG), Merrill Lynch have all made significant moves to take advantage of what is clearly a bargain basement sale. Now Murdoch's name is on the list. Will Bernard Schwartz be far behind? Call me crazy but I have to believe he's licking his chops. Mike Doyle