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TAKE A LOOK AT OTHER YEARS: 1998 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 JANUARY THROUGH APRIL January: Tele-Communications Inc.'s United Video Satellite Group Inc. and Liberty Media Corp. decide to spin off and sell their Superstar/Netlink Group C-band program packaging and network superstation uplinking business to a DBS company, putting 1 million C-band subscribers up for grabs. That spinoff does not take place by the end of the year. (Satellite Business News, Jan. 1, 1997). January: EchoStar Communications Corp. rolls out its high-end DBS receiver, the Model 5000, with seamless switching between DBS, cable, and broadcast channels. (Satellite Business News, Jan. 1, 1997) January: Reacting to a similar EchoStar deal, DirecTv Inc. teams up with TVN Entertainment L.P. to offer free DBS systems to C-band dish owners. Customers are required to purchase a $355 annual DirecTv Total Choice subscription to get the free system. TVN does not make many sales many sales. (Satellite Business News, Jan. 29, 1997) Jan. 11: AT&T SkyNet Inc. loses contact with its Telstar 401 satellite and scrambles to find transponder capacity for its clients. AT&T never regains use of the bird and eventually sells its entire SkyNet fleet to Loral SkyNet Inc. (Satellite Business News, Jan. 29, 1997) Jan. 22: Consumer Satellite Systems Inc. buys Showtime Networks Inc.'s retail program packaging business, making CSS' National Programming Service the second largest C-band programming distributor. NPS knocks $279 off the suggested retail price of its VC RS module, offering it for $19.95 to try to breathe life back into the C-band industry. (Satellite Business News, Jan.29, 1997) February: ABC Inc. sues PrimeTime 24, alleging it violated the Satellite Home Viewer Act's white area restrictions by offering network superstation subscriptions to dish owners within ABC's WTVD-Durham, N.C., market. PrimeTime 24 faces a similar lawsuit in Miami brought by Fox, CBS, and five CBS affiliates, filed in December, and another in Amarillo, Texas, filed by a Fox affiliate in spring 1996. (Satellite Business News, Feb. 12, 1997) Feb. 24: EchoStar and News Corp. announce their partnership to develop a single DBS business that will offer local network stations from 75 percent of the U.S. market. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch plans a $1 billion investment to help fund the construction and launch of five satellites to fulfill the local signal promise using capacity at five orbital slots. (Satellite Business News, March 12) March: Satellite Receivers Ltd. President Dave Charles takes the AlphaStar Television Network Inc. helm as the company campaigns for more retailer and financial support at the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association's Las Vegas show. (Satellite Business News, March 26, 1997) March: DirecTv shuffles its programming and packaging lineup, adding 14 new basic channels and moving its Encore thematic movie channels to a new package, "Total Choice Plus Encore," retailing for $33.99 per month. (Satellite Business News, March 12, 1997) March: General Instrument Corp. takes advance orders for its new 4D-TV receiver, which enables C- band dish owners to view unscrambled and scrambled analog signals as well as digital feeds. GI plans an aggressive marketing campaign. (Satellite Business News, March 26, 1997) March 21: EchoStar President Carl Vogel resigns. Vogel becomes chief executive officer of Canadian DBS service Star Choice Television Network Inc. Oct. 23. Star Choice becomes the second Canadian DBS service April 29, behind AlphaStar Canada. The service employs GI-manufactured DBS reception systems. (Satellite Business News, April 9, Sept. 24, and Nov. 5, 1997) March 31: The Supreme Court upholds cable's must-carry requirement, ruling 5 to 4 that the 1992 Cable Act requirement that cable operators set aside up to a third of their channel capacity for local broadcast channels does not violate the First Amendment. (Satellite Business News, April 9, 1997) April: Fox Networks scrambles its FX channel to fulfill a promise of exclusive carriage to cable operators, making it unavailable to C-band or DBS dish owners. EchoStar later files a program access complaint against Fox at the Federal Communications Commission, claiming those exclusive contracts are illegal. (Satellite Business News, April 23 and Dec. 17, 1997) April 25: EchoStar refuses News Corp.'s demand it abandon its Nagra S.A. conditional access system for the planned Sky DBS service, and the two companies end their partnership amid much animosity on both sides about each company's unwillingness to cooperate. Many observers suggest Murdoch and EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen discovered they could not work together. EchoStar files a breach of contract lawsuit against News Corp. May 9 in a federal court in Denver. News Corp. turns the tables June 9 with a countersuit. (Satellite Business News, May 7, May 21, and June 18, 1997) MAY THROUGH AUGUST May 14: The FCC grants Space Systems/Loral Corp.'s request to assign the Continental DBS construction permit to R/L DBS Co. L.L.C., a joint venture between Loral and Rainbow DBS Holding Inc., paving the way for Loral to build high-power DBS satellites and launch them into the 61.5-degree and 166-degree orbital slots. Construction must be completed by the FCC deadline of Aug. 15, 1999. (Satellite Business News, June 4, 1997) May 27: AlphaStar declares bankruptcy in a U.S. bankruptcy court after parent company Tee-Comm Electronics Inc.'s board of directors resigns and places the Canadian company in receivership. Tee- Comm had launched a last-minute effort to attract new financing after the Bank of Montreal refused to pay the $50 million (Canadian) in interest due on its secured debt. Company bondholders rejected Tee- Comm's offer of equity in the company in exchange for bonds, leading the Bank of Montreal to cancel Tee-Comm's remaining credit line. (Satellite Business News, June 4, 1997) May 27: FCC Chairman Reed Hundt asks President Clinton to begin looking for his replacement. In October, the Senate approves Clinton's nomination of William Kennard, the FCC's general counsel, as the new chairman. He is joined by new FCC commissioners Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a Republican, and Democrat Gloria Tristani. (Satellite Business News, June 4 and Nov. 5, 1997) May 29: The SBCA's board of directors votes to stage one national convention per year starting in 1998 and announces plans to work with the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association to coordinate a satellite TV presence at the 1998 Consumer Electronics Show. (Satellite Business News, June 18, 1997) May 30: PrimeTime 24 fights back against its broadcaster opposition, filing an antitrust suit against the four major broadcast networks, the National Association of Broadcasters, and several affiliate associations. PrimeTime 24 alleges the broadcasters conspired to put the network superstation uplinker out of business. (Satellite Business News, June 18, 1997) June: With the aid of conditional access supplier NDS Americas Inc., DirecTv and U.S. Satellite Broadcasting Inc. complete their first security card swap to thwart piracy. However, several hackers enjoyed the use of their first generation cards during the June 28 Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield boxing match. (Satellite Business News, July 16, 1997) June 30: CSS announces plans to merge with DSI Distributing Inc., giving the new DSI/CSS Inc. distribution coverage of the continental United States and making it the nation's lareest satellite TV equipment distributor. (Satellite Business News, July 16, 1997) July: A federal court in Toronto rules it is illegal for Canadians to receive programming from U.S. DBS services, making it also illegal for Norsat International Inc. and others to sell DirecTv/USSB reception systems there. Later, a Canadian appeals court dismisses Norsat's claim ExpressVu Inc. and several Canadian programmers have no legal basis to sue the company for selling the systems. (Satellite Business News, Sept.10, 1997) July: After announcing a binding letter of intent June 11 to roll up its partnership into one pubic company, Primestar Partners L.P. asks the Department of Justice for an antitrust review of its plans. Primestar also plans to add News Corp. to the partnership, in exchange for control of the 28 channels News Corp. partner MCI Telecommunications Corp. controls at the full-CONUS 110-degree DBS orbital slot. (Satellite Business News, July 16, 1997) July 9: U.S. Magistrate Judge Linnea Johnson, in the Federal District Court in Miami, recommends the court issue a temporary injunction to stop PrimeTime 24 from selling network superstation subscriptions to homes within range of terrestrial broadcast signals until PrimeTime 24's pending suit with CBS is concluded. The court does not rule on that recommendation by the end of the year, instead ordering the two sides into mediation. (Satellite Business News, July 16, 1997) July 25: After GI splits its businesses into three separate public companies, its communications business, Next Level Systems Inc., debuts under the ticker symbol NLV. CommScope Inc. becomes a separate cable manufacturing business, and General Semiconductor Inc. becomes a separate power semiconductor business. (Satellite Business News, Aug. 27, 1997) August: The West Virginia and Florida Attorney General's offices lead a probe of DirecTv's program packaging and consumer lending practices after DirecTv's March decision to increase programming fees by $4 per month for subscribers wanting to receive Encore movie channels. (Satellite Business News, Sept. 10, 1997) Aug. 8: After getting no acceptable offers to the U.S. bankruptcy court to buy AlphaStar, Loral SkyNet takes back control of the transponders AlphaStar was using on Telstar 5. AlphaStar shuts down its DBS service, leaving 20,000 customers in the United States, and 30,000 customers in Puerto Rico and Canada without service. (Satellite Business News, Aug. 13, 1997) Aug. 29: A U.S. Copyright Office arbitration panel recommends the Copyright Office raise royalty fees satellite providers pay to retransmit superstation and network superstation signals to 27 cents per subscriber per month, retroactive to July 1. Satellite TV industry hands are shocked at the new rates, in some cases 400 percent higher than cable's, and begin lobbying Capitol Hill for relief (Satellite Business News, Sept. 10, 1997) SEPTEMBER THROUGH DECEMBER September: The Department of Justice tentatively agrees not to oppose the Primestar rollup, leaving the final decision to the FCC. The FCC does not rule by the end of the year on Primestar's plans to use the 110-degree and 119-degree orbital slots. (Satellite Business News, Sept. 24, 1997) Sept. 4: Longtime satellite TV executive Jim Ramo leaves DirecTv to become president of TVN Entertainment. With Chairman Stu Levin, Ramo plans to help develop TVN's new pay-per-view service for cable operator--Digital Cable Television. (Satellite Business News, Sept. 24, 1997) Sept. 11: ExpressVu's DISH Network DBS service becomes the third DBS service in Canada, using EchoStar-manufactured DBS systems. (Satellite Business News, Sept. 24, 1997) October: In an effort to stem the gray market in Canada, Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin seizing DBS reception systems passing into Canada and questioning satellite dealers stocking them. (Satellite Business News, Oct. 8, 1997) October: Despite complaints on Capitol Hill from the cable industry and other video providers about the fairness of such exclusive deals, DirecTv gets a contract extension from NFL Enterprises Inc. to continue as the sole provider of NFL Sunday Ticket to the DBS market through the 1999-2000 season. Cable operators are still unable to offer the package. (Satellite Business News, Oct. 22, 1997) October: USSB, DirecTv, and MTV Networks Inc. discuss moving the basic channels on USSB, including the MTV group, to DirecTv's lineup in 1998. The move would allow USSB to add more premium movie channels to its lineup and strengthen its marketing position as a movie-based DBS service. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 5, 1997) Oct. 16: In one of several restructuring announcements, Next Level Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Friedland resigns and is replaced by Ed Breen, a longtime GI cable executive. Following Satellite Data Networks Group President Michael Bernique's Sept. 24 resignation, Next Level appoints Tom Lynch vice president and general manager of the group. (Satellite Business News, Oct. 8 and Nov. 5, 1997) Oct. 20: The International Trade Commission rules Thomson Consumer Electronics Inc., DirecTv, USSB, and other DirecTv/USSB system manufacturers do not infringe patents claimed by Personalized Media Communications Corp. PMC had sought an injunction against those companies to stop them from importing and selling the reception systems. The company plans to appeal the ITC decision. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 5, 1997) Oct. 27: Librarian of Congress James Billington upsets the satellite TV industry by adopting the U.S. Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel's recommendation to charge satellite companies 27 cents per subscriber per month for network and superstation signals. Billington makes the rate increase effective Jan. 1, 1998, rather than retroactive to July 1. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 5, 1997) Oct. 27: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 7.2 percent. USSB and Next Level are the satellite TV stocks hardest hit, dropping 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 5, 1997) November: The DSS Data Trapper, a new device hackers claim is more resistant to electronic countermeasures, emerges days before DirecTv and NDS unleash their first ECM against modified security cards in five months. (Satellite Business News, Dec.3, 1997) Nov. 6: Rural DirecTv distributor Pegasus Communications Corp. buys Digital Television Services Inc., its top competitor, increasing its DirecTv/USSB subscribers to 250,000, about 8 percent of all DirecTv/USSB system owners. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 19, 1997) Nov. 7: Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Rick Boucher (D-Va.) introduce two bills to delay copyright fee increases just before Congress adjourns for the year. However, with Congress unable to consider the bills until February at the earliest and the increase scheduled for Jan. 1, satellite carriers must decide whether to raise prices or wait for the votes on the bills and risk financial consequences. (Satellite Business News, Nov. 19, 1997) Nov. 13: Next Level sheds 20 percent of its satellite business work force, cutting 225 jobs nationwide. Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Charles Dickson and Satellite Data Networks Group Associate Vice President of Marketing and Communications Maurice Nieman are among the victims. The purge is closely followed by the closing of Next Level's principal satellite receiver manufacturing facility in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, where 1,100 employees are laid off. GI warns DSI/CSS, one of the industry's largest module distributors, it may not be able to deliver the distributor's complete January order on time. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 3 and Dec. 1l, 1997) Nov. 24: EchoStar protests Fox Networks' decision to offer its FX channel exclusively to cable operators by filing a program access complaint at the FCC. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 17, 1997) Nov. 25: Champion Holding Co. tops Kelly Broadcasting Inc. in a bidding war for AlphaStar's remaining U.S. assets. Champion offers $4.65 million for AlphaStar's Oxford, Conn., uplink center and inventory and announces plans to revive the DBS service in some form for Puerto Rican, Hawaiian, and Alaskan AlphaStar system owners. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 1 7, 1997) December: EchoStar announces plans to offer network stations from New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, and Atlanta on its DISH Network DBS service Jan. 8 from EchoStar-3 at the 61.5-degree orbital slot. EchoStar plans to offer a package of each market's five local network stations for $5 per month. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 17, 1997) Dec. 4: A group including DirecTv, USSB, EchoStar, and the SBCA meet to discuss plans to urge the FCC to extend program access rules to non-satellite delivered and non-vertically integrated programmers. The FCC issues a notice of proposed rulemaking two weeks later on program access issues but does not address those concerns. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 17, 1997) Dec. 8: DirecTv ends its partnership with AT&T. The venture leaves DirecTv with less than 40,000 subscribers added from AT&T's efforts, while AT&T leaves with $24.3 million more than it invested in the original deal. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 17, 1997) Dec. 9 through 12: The Western Cable Show in Anaheim, Calif., reveals the cable TV industry's confidence in the face of complaints about cable rates and DBS competition. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 17, 1997) Dec. 17: Next Level changes its name back to GI and announces $4.5 billion in orders from nine cable TV operators over the next five years, including Time Warner Inc., TCI, Cox Communications Corp., and Comcast Communications Corp. Many view the deals as the boost the struggling GI needs on Wall Street. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 31, 1997) Dec. 18: General Motors Corp. completes its separation of Hughes Electronics Corp. from its automotive electronics and defense electronics units by selling the defense unit to Raytheon and absorbing the Delco auto parts division into its Delphi Automotive Systems. The deal leaves Hughes Electronics in control of Hughes Communications Inc., its satellite construction and operation business, Hughes Network Systems, its electronics manufacturing business, and the DirecTv DBS business. (Satellite Business News, Dec. 31, 1997)     Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.