From flatoday.com: Loral Skynet and Loral Orion announce trans-Atlantic service
for European specialty programmers
Skynet Direct(TM) provides European programmers cost-effective
access to North American viewers
Loral Orion and Loral Skynet News Release
AMSTERDAM - Loral Skynet and Loral Orion announced Sept. 11 they will
work together to provide backhaul services from Europe for Loral Skynet's new
content distribution service, Skynet Direct. This relationship between the
organizations will facilitate trans-Atlantic content distribution for European
specialty programmers who wish to reach viewers in North America.
"This relationship is a perfect example of how our emerging Loral Global Alliance
will take advantage of its regional member operators' unique capabilities to create
transport solutions that connect customers to the rest of the world," said Terry
Hart, president, Loral Skynet. "Providers and distributors of specialty
programming in Europe will now have a link to the Skynet Direct digital
distribution service platform in North America."
Using Loral Orion satellites, distributors and providers of specialty programming
can transport their content to Skynet Direct's uplink site in Cheyenne, Wyo. The
signal will then be distributed digitally, using Loral Skynet's Telstar 5 satellite at 97
degrees W.L., to subscribers throughout North America, including Alaska,
Hawaii and the Caribbean.
Neil Bauer, president of Loral Orion, said, "Providing our European leasing
customers with access to the North American market expands Loral Orion's
services for the trans-Atlantic region. This packaged content distribution service
also allows us to bring our customer's programming to all of the United States and
all of Europe simultaneously."
Loral Orion currently provides satellite leasing services to all the cable head ends
in the United Kingdom and to many program distributors across Europe by using
the Orion 1 satellite. The company will extend its reach as far as Russia, South
America, and South Africa, after launching the new Orion 2 satellite in mid-1999,
giving customers access to all major centers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Skynet Direct is a result of a recently formed strategic alliance between Loral
Skynet and EchoStar Communications Corp., both based in the U.S., to offer
new digital-based services to cable operators, programmers, and direct-to-home
(DTH) consumers in North America. Skynet Direct offers programmers a
combination of Loral Skynet's 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, and Puerto Rico.
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 2. SatMex 5 (previously Morelos 3), 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 Orion is based in Rockville, Md., and is a subsidiary of Loral Space &
Communications. Loral Orion is an international satellite communications
company that provides satellite capacity to television broadcasters and other
program distributors, provides Internet access directly to Internet Service
Providers and multinational businesses worldwide and provides managed
networks services to corporate customers around the globe. Services include
data networking, voice, video, teleconferencing and news distribution to multiple
points worldwide. Loral Orion can be found on the Internet at
loralorion.com.
Loral Space & Communications (NYSE:LOR) 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.
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