Tim Warren

News Corp. is in talks with British Sky Broadcasting to acquire the 60.9 percent of BSkyB stock it doesn’t already own, the companies said Tuesday. News Corp. has already made two informal offers for the public shares, both of which were declined by BSkyB, they said. While the companies haven’t agreed on a price, they agreed to proceed with the regulatory process to “facilitate a proposed transaction,” said News Corp. BSkyB’s independent directors said it would back a higher offer. “It is the unanimous view from the independent directors that there is a significant gap between the proposal from News Corp. and the value of the company,” said BSkyB. The purchase likely will require regulatory approval from the European Union and other regulators, said News Corp.

The personnel and data needs of the effort to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil leak have increased reliance on satellite communications in what is usually a very low-density region, said executives of major providers of satellite services there. But one of the two providers has had a much larger increase in demand than the other.

DirecTV’s launch of ESPN 3D Friday, and later additions of other 3D programming this month, will help differentiate the company from other TV providers as an early adopter of the technology, said Steven Roberts, senior vice president of new media and business development, who’s overseeing the 3D effort for DirecTV. Extensive work with TV manufacturers will allow the company to remain at the forefront of TV technology, as it did with HD, he said. Dish will also begin to offer 3D later this year, but opted not to sign up now for ESPN 3D, said a Dish executive.

Satellite industry revenue growth slowed to about 11 percent in 2009, slightly lower than the average between 2004 and 2009, the Satellite Industry Association said in its annual state of the satellite industry report Monday. The association treated the slowdown as a major success across all satellite sectors given the large-scale economic contraction that has dragged down other industries around the world. The study was done by the Futron Corp. using independent research and surveys of SIA members and 40 other international and domestic satellite companies.

Thales Alenia Space will design and build Iridium’s new constellation of low-earth orbit mobile services satellites for $2.1 billion, the companies said Wednesday. French export credit agency Coface issued a promise of guarantee to cover 95 percent of the $1.8 billion credit facility for the satellites, said Iridium. The guarantee offers significant security for lenders and isn’t conditioned on new debt or equity financing, Iridium said. Thales was competing with Lockheed Martin for the contract. Total cost for the constellation, including launch, insurance and ground segments, is about $2.9 billion, the company said. Iridium will pay for the rest of the constellation through its own cash flow.

SES World Skies successfully avoided signal interference from Intelsat’s stray Galaxy 15 satellite that drifted into SES’s orbital space, both companies said. While the satellite remains within SES’s orbital slot at 131 degrees west, it’s out of range to pose an interference threat to AMC-11, SES World Skies’ satellite in that slot. Galaxy’s expected to exit the AMC-11 orbital space June 7, said Intelsat. Intelsat lost communication with Galaxy in April (CD April 9 p10) and has been unable to keep the satellite from drifting even though its transponders remain active. The companies were concerned the proximity of the two satellites’ active C-band transponders could interrupt service for customers on the AMC-11 satellite.

The FCC’s Open-Market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act report will likely include reference to the accusations of anticompetitive behavior against Intelsat as part of an historical overview of the proceeding, an FCC official said. The overview will include all filings on the matter as past reports have, the official said. Globecomm, Artel, CapRock, and Spacenet filed complaints about the structure of the fixed satellite services market and accused Intelsat of anticompetitive behavior in the ORBIT Act docket. The ORBIT Act requires the FCC to provide annual reports to the House and Senate Commerce and Foreign Relations committees on the effect of the privatization of Intelsat and Inmarsat.

The FCC voted to revise rules in the wireless communications service band, making 25 MHz of spectrum available for mobile broadband use by WCS licensees more than a decade after the agency first took up the issue. The commission on Thursday also implemented new construction benchmarks for licensees in the band, meant to increase the speed of the service’s deployment. The FCC cited the order as the first step in the National Broadband Plan goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband services. Previous rules for the spectrum limited its use to fixed services.

The two direct broadcast satellite providers slowed their spending on lobbying in Q1, compared with Q4, analysis of public records shows. Dish Network and DirecTV’s combined expenses fell 23 percent to $860,000.

The FCC should recognize aircraft mounted earth stations (AMES) as a primary application of the fixed satellite service Ku-band spectrum before it allows vehicle mounted earth stations (VMES) networks to begin operations, Boeing told the commission in a filing.