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

Portugal Telecom adds 72 thousand 'meo' subscribers in 1Q09
May 14, 2009 – Portugal Telecom (Lisbon: PTC; NYSE: PT) has announced results for the first quarter of 2009. In 1Q09, net additions to the 'meo' satellite and IPTV pay-TV service reached 72 thousand bringing the total customer base to 384 thousand.
News categories: Portugal Telecom, IPTV, Portugal, Results, Satellite, Subscribers

Canal+ France adds 75,000 subscriptions Y-o-Y to end-Q1
May 14, 2009 – Vivendi (Paris: VIV) has announced results for the first quarter of 2009. With the launch of the 'neufbox by SFR', SFR added 163,000 net new broadband customers in the period. Canal+ France year-on-year portfolio growth was 75,000 subscriptions.
News categories: Vivendi, Canal+ Group, SFR, France, IPTV, Poland, Results, Satellite, Subscribers

Poland's 'n' has 544 thousand activations at end-Q1
May 14, 2009 – TVN Group has announced results for the first quarter of 2009. In March 2009 TVN took control of the 'n' DTH platform. By the end of the quarter, 'n' had signed up 549,000 postpaid subscribers of which over 544,000 had been activated.
News categories: TVN Group, Poland, Results, Satellite, Subscribers

Premiere subscribers down 28k in Q1 '09
May 14, 2009 – Premiere AG (PRE.XE) has announced results for Q1 2009. Premiere had a total of 2.371m direct subscribers at the end of Q1 2009, a reduction of 28k from 2.399m at 31 December 2008.
News categories: Premiere AG, Austria, Germany, Results, Satellite, Subscribers

Turkey's D-Smart approaches 1 million activations
May 14, 2009 – DoÄŸan Yayın Holding (DYH) [Istanbul:DYHOL] has announced results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2009. The number of D-Smart DTH users has reached approx. 1 million. An ADSL+ Pay TV offer was tested successfully in March-April.
News categories: D-Smart, DoÄŸan Yayin Holding, IPTV, Results, Satellite, Subscribers, Turkey

European Commission paves the way for European mobile satellite services
May 14, 2009 – The European Commission has selected two operators, Inmarsat Ventures and Solaris Mobile, to provide mobile satellite services, such as high-speed internet access, mobile television and radio or emergency communications, across Europe.
News categories: European Commission, Inmarsat, Solaris Mobile, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Digital TV, Estonia, EU, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mobile, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Satellite, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK

Telefónica pay TV accesses exceed 2.3 million
May 13, 2009 – Telefónica (Madrid and NYSE: TEF) has released its first quarter 2009 results. Pay TV accesses exceeded 2.3 million by the end of March, almost 25% more than a year ago. However, subscriber numbers in Spain fell by 7,700 in the quarter.
News categories: Telefónica, Brazil, Cable TV, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, IPTV, Peru, Results, Satellite, Spain, Subscribers, Venezuela

Cabot middleware to support Freesat
May 13, 2009 – Cabot is extending its middleware suite to support Freesat, the first British free-to-air satellite service which provides around 200 television and radio channels, including High Definition (HD) broadcasts.
News categories: Cabot, Freesat, Digital TV, DVR, MHEG-5, Middleware, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart TV, UK

Russia's Set-top Box Market Set to Boom
May 13, 2009 – According to IMS Research, over the next 5 years, an estimated 50 million set-top boxes (STBs) will be needed to supply the Russian DTV market, generating well over US$1 billion in STB revenues by 2014.
News categories: IMS Research, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Russia, Satellite, Set Top Box