SES Questions Data on Merger Satellite

[Steve Mehs]

SES Americom, which is developing a satellite TV platform for the U.S. market, asked the Federal Communications Commission to take a close look at the proposal from merging DBS companies EchoStar and DirecTV concerning a new satellite they want for expanded local TV services.

In comments sent to the agency on the proposed satellite - called New EchoStar I - and the pending merger, SES told the FCC that it should have safeguards in place "to ensure that the combination does not foreclose entry by potential DBS competitors."

In addition, SES said the application for New EchoStar I, which would support carriage of additional local TV stations for the merged company, lacks technical data and information on potential interference with other services. The company also said its proposed DBS system has ITU (International Telecommunications Union) priority over the proposed satellite. SES wants to locate its satellite at 105 degrees, near EchoStar's orbital slot at 110 degrees.

"The commission should therefore consider the application incomplete, and defer processing of the application, until the results of this interference analysis, as well as other missing critical technical information described in these comments, are submitted," SES said.

SES' proposed DBS system at 105 degrees is given ITU priority due to its assignment to the government of Gibraltar, the company said. SES wants to use the Gibraltar-licensed location to offer satellite capacity to third parties, and has an application at the FCC on the matter.

Further in its comments, SES said that if the FCC approves the use of New EchoStar I, the merged company should be required to provide its local TV programming to competitors.

"As the applicants acknowledge, with the addition of New EchoStar I, only New EchoStar (the merged company) would be able to provide local television programming to all Americans via satellite," SES told the FCC. "Requiring New EchoStar to grant competitors access to its local television programming would not harm" the merged company, the company said.

The SES filing was part of an FCC effort to take comments on the New EchoStar satellite proposal. On Monday, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative asked the agency to dismiss the EchoStar/DirecTV application concerning the satellite.

From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com) (Used with Permission)

[JohnH]

What a "can of worms" this merger doth become.

So now according to SES, their thing comes first, then the NE1, if it isn't tossed out for lack of technical info.

The FCC says, we ain't gonna talk about the merger until we resolve this NE1 thing. There is no NE1 without the merger.

Whole thing makes one wonder what to do about program sharing rules sunsetting in October.

Aah, what the heck, let's launch some more locals.

Hence you see the real problem with these global corporations. The 105 DBS slot was licenced to Gilbraltar. So what about the people of Gilbraltar? If the FCC allows US reception of foreign DBS slots, well my friend Charlie gets exactly what he wants (ie access to Expressvu's NIMIQ transponders). So to him the merger becomes moot. Turn down the Dish/DirecTv merger - he shows back up with an Echostar/Expressvu joint operating agreement which gives him all the CONUS bandwidth he needs to thump DirecTV.

[lee635]

Hey that's not a bad idea. Echostar and Expressvu both use the same encryption and receivers, and can share authorizations for common programming, and individually authorize their unique programming. So duplicated programming is eliminated. Who said Charlie doesn't have a plan B?

[jmeluni]

Originally posted by lee635
Hey that's not a bad idea. Echostar and Expressvu both use the same encryption and receivers, and can share authorizations for common programming, and individually authorize their unique programming. So duplicated programming is eliminated. Who said Charlie doesn't have a plan B?

What a great idea! No receivers to swap and I'm sure the cost would be a lot less for Echostar. Competition would remain in the US and the Dish/ExpressVu combination could certainly give Direct TV a run for their money!

[Scott Greczkowski]

Try getting that one passed by the FCC and CRTC. In Canada while they have CourtTV, Discovery channel etc, they are not the American Versions of the channels.

The CRTC did not feel there was enough Canadian content on the channels so they made them launch special channels just for Canada.

I can not see them "opening the floodgates"

Try getting that one passed by the FCC and CRTC.

If the FCC gives the green light to SES to use foreign dbs slots; there's nothing stopping Charlie from buying NIMIQ transponders directly from Telesat. It would have nothing to do with the CRTC. The Canadian governing body for satellites is Industry Canada.

Some of Expressvu services are the US services: eg) A&E; CNN, CNN Headline, TBS, WSBK, KTLA, etc. So Expressvu could put them together on transponders for both companies use. This would give Charlie access to Center Ice as well.

It may very well not happen; but if the FCC opens up foreign DBS slots for US consumer use - it's opens up a different ballgame.