Satellite Television (DBS, DTH, DSat, DVB-S, DVB-S2) News

2.1 million active smartcards for Italy's TivùSat
Apr 1, 2014 – Italian satellite TV platform TivùSat has announced that at the end of the first quarter of 2014 it had more than 2.1 million active smart cards in 1.7 million households.
News categories: Tivù, CAM, Italy, Satellite, Subscribers

Wananchi takes Zuku TV to Malawi
Apr 1, 2014 – Wananchi Group has confirmed plans to venture into Malawi by launching Zuku TV as part of its strategy to grow its TV operations.
News categories: Wananchi, Richard Alden, Digital TV, Malawi, Satellite

Dutch digital TV subscribers grow to 6.66 million in 2013
Mar 28, 2014 – The number of digital TV connections in the Netherlands grew by 1.0 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013 to 6.66 million on 31 December 2013, according to Telecompaper's latest quarterly Dutch Television Market report.
News categories: Telecompaper, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Market Research, Netherlands, Satellite, Subscribers, Terrestrial

Motive begins installations for FreeVision DTH in South Africa
Mar 27, 2014 – Motive Television has announce that it has begun the installation of its Content Express™ platform in South Africa in accordance with the contract signed in December 2013 with Siyaya Free To Air TV.
News categories: Motive Television, Sentech, FreeVision, Skyworth, Leonard M Fertig, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Satellite, Set Top Box, South Africa

Thaicom gets ready for digital TV trial run
Mar 26, 2014 – Thaicom, in cooperation with broadcasters and providers of set-top-boxes, will start broadcasting Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals in Thailand on a trial basis from the 1st of April.
News categories: Thaicom, Paiboon Panuwattanawong, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Satellite, Terrestrial, Thailand

Argentina's Pay TV subscribers up 7.3% in 2013
Mar 25, 2014 – According to the Latin American Multichannel Advertising Council (LAMAC), the number of pay TV subscribers in Argentina grew by 7.3%, or 666,800, in 2013 to reach 9,830,700 households at the end of the year.
News categories: LAMAC, Argentina, Cable TV, Satellite, Subscribers

North America to add 5 million pay TV subscribers
Mar 24, 2014 – Despite all of the talk about cord-cutting, a new report from Digital TV Research forecasts that the number of pay TV subscribers in North America will continue to increase – despite a small decline in 2013.
News categories: Cable TV, Digital TV, Digital TV Research Reports, IPTV, Market Research, North America, Satellite, Subscribers, Terrestrial

ASTRA 5B satellite launch success on Ariane 5
Mar 22, 2014 – SES (Paris and Luxembourg: SESG) has announced that the ASTRA 5B satellite was successfully orbited by an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana, at 19:04 local time on March 22nd, 2014.
News categories: SES S.A, Romain Bausch, François Auque, Antonio Tajani, Content Distribution, Europe, Satellite

AustriaSat DTH launches in Hungary with Eutelsat
Mar 20, 2014 – M7 has selected Eutelsat’s (Paris:ETL) 9° East neighbourhood to support the launch in Hungary of AustriaSat Magyarország by its subsidiary, M70 Group.
News categories: Eutelsat, M7 Group, AustriaSat, Jaromír Glisník, Jean-François Leprince-Ringuet, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Hungary, Satellite