EchoStar, Loral Skynet to Begin New Satellite Television Programming Service in September 1998
EchoStar, Loral Announce Channel Package for SkyVista Direct-to-Home Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 23, 1998-- EchoStar Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH - news, DISHP - news) today unveiled pricing and programming packages for the recently announced direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service offered in conjunction with Loral Skynet's transportation and distribution service.
Both services are scheduled to begin in October 1998, on Loral Skynet's Telstar 5 satellite located at 97 degrees West Longitude.
EchoStar's SkyVista DTH service will include over 20 channels of the ''Best of Satellite'' package for $19.99 per month. This package includes broadcast network signals, one premium channel of HBO and one premium channel of Starz as well as foreign and niche programming for additional monthly charges.
EchoStar will offer SkyVista customers a complete satellite system for a suggested retail price of $399, which will include a 90-cm dish antenna and a single low-noise block converter with integrated feed (LNBF).
In June, Loral Skynet and EchoStar Communications Corp., announced that they had agreed in principle to form a strategic alliance to offer a host of new digital-based services to cable operators, programmers, and DTH consumers. The alliance created two services: EchoStar's SkyVista direct-to-home package, and Skynet Direct, Loral Skynet's transmission and distribution service. The services are to be offered to programmers and other niche service providers such as international channels, specialized channels, distance learning services and corporate business television networks.
''Our alliance will create the only DVB (digital video broadcast) platform in the United States that will allow specialized programming and mainstream DTH programming to be packaged separately, yet be received in the same set-top box and accessible through a single access card and electronic program guide,'' said Terry Hart, president of Loral Skynet. ''It will enable specialty programmers to easily reach their target audiences in North America more cost-effectively.''
To create this innovative platform, Loral Skynet and EchoStar have integrated through their alliance portions of their space assets, ground networks, and digital distribution resources to launch an end-to-end transmission and distribution service for specialty programming that can be received by both DTH consumers and cable operators throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
''EchoStar's SkyVista is pleased to join forces with Loral Skynet to form this unique satellite broadcast service,'' said Charlie Ergen, Chairman and CEO of EchoStar Communications Corp. ''This alliance provides EchoStar an opportunity to expand its ethnic and business television programming services and to increase its distribution to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.''
Skynet Direct is Loral Skynet's new transmission and distribution service that offers programmers a combination of its Telstar fleet space segment with compression, encoding, uplinking, format conversion and multiplexing from EchoStar's existing facilities. Skynet Direct will enable specialty programmers -- such as international channels, specialized channels, distance learning services and business television -- to cost-effectively distribute their programming to targeted audiences throughout the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The programming can be received through the same 90-cm dish, using the same set-top box and access card, as EchoStar's SkyVista DTH service.
The DTH service will also be available to Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Island residents who currently lack small dish access to satellite-delivered, multi-channel digital programming. EchoStar will provide uplinking and distribution services to Telstar 5 from its facilities in Cheyenne, Wyo., as well as order processing, set-top box authorization, and billing from its customer service centers in Denver, Colo.
Through the Loral Skynet and EchoStar alliance, the SkyVista consumers and specialty programming customers in the United States will be able to subscribe to EchoStar's DISH Network(tm) programming services using an additional antenna with the same receiver and access card.
EchoStar Communications Corp., headquartered in Littleton, Colo., includes three interrelated business units:
o DISH Network, EchoStar's state-of-the-art DBS system that offers customers over 240 channels of digital video and CD-quality audio programming, fully MPEG-2/DVB compliant hardware, installation, financing and leasing.
o EchoStar Technologies Corporation (ETC, formerly HTS(TM) - Houston Tracker Systems, Inc.), designs, manufactures and distributes DBS set-top boxes, antennae and other digital equipment for the DISH Network and various international customers that include ExpressVu Canada and Telefonica's Via Digital system in Spain. ETC also provides uplink center design, construction oversight and project integration services for customers internationally.
o Satellite Services, provides the turnkey delivery of video, audio and data services to business television customers and other satellite users. These services include satellite uplink services, satellite transponder space usage, and other services.
The DISH Network currently serves over 1.4 million customers. DISH Network is a trademark of EchoStar Communications Corporation. HTS is a trademark of Houston Tracker Systems, Inc. DISH Network is located on the Internet at: dishnetwork.com
Loral Skynet of Bedminster, New Jersey, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, is a leading satellite communications services provider that owns and operates the Telstar satellites. Loral Skynet's customers lease transponder capacity to distribute network television programming, collect live video feeds for the reporting of news and events, and to offer direct-to-home and pay-per-view programming, distance learning, educational, and other business television services. Loral Skynet also provides technical consulting, as well as tracking, telemetry, and control of satellite fleets for a wide variety of customers. Loral Skynet operates Telstar 4 and Telstar 5, which provide C-band and Ku-band coverage over the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Through the recent privatization of Mexico's satellite operations, Loral, through Loral Skynet, also manages Satellites Mexicanos, S.A. de C.V. (SatMex). SatMex currently operates three satellites, Solidaridad 1, Solidaridad 2 and Morelos II. SatMex 5 (previously Morelos III), is scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 1998. Loral Skynet's vigorous growth plan includes future launches of Telstar 6 and 7, which are expected to be in service in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and Telstar 8 and 9, to be in service shortly thereafter. For more information, visit Loral Skynet's web site at loralskynet.com.
Loral Space & Communications (NYSE:LOR - news) is a high technology company that primarily concentrates on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services, including broadcast transponder leasing and value-added services, domestic and international corporate data networks, global wireless telephony, broadband data transmission and formatting, Internet connectivity, and international direct-to-home satellite services. For more information, visit Loral's web site at loral.com.
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