ITV

Tag: including

  • ISRO to launch new satellites including Healthsat

    BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launching many satellites including Healthsat for tele-medicine. Also figuring in the list are OceanSat II, Radar Imaging Satellite, Megha Tropiques and EDUSAT.
     

    Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of INTELEMEDINDIA 2005, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair divulged ISRO’s plans to launch Healthsat within four years. The communications satellite will be launched exclusively for health care so patients and doctors in remote rural areas could consult specialists in cities.

    Nair said the organisation may accept help from private corporations to fund the project probably by the second half of this year. ISRO is also thinking of helping neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Myanmmar on their telemedicine projects.
     
     

    At present, the existing satellite transponders serve 100 tele-health stations, including district hospitals and specialty hospitals around the country, next year 500 such stations would be served and in 2007 Nair expects about 1000 hospitals in the telemedicine loop. Within the next three to four years one exclusive satellite for the purpose of telemedicine would be needed, since the present satellite would not have the capacity to cater to these enhanced needs.

    While addressing a seminar in Mangalore, ISRO chairman Dr. V Jayaraman announced that OceanSat II would be commissioned by 2006 and the Radar Imaging Satellite (RIS) and Megha Tropiques would be launched by 2008. A deeper study of the oceans and seas was essential since oceans control the weather, around 2.5 billion people across the globe lived on coastal belts and a sixth of the animal protein was derived from fish species.

    EDUSAT or the GSAT-3 is the first satellite of the Education Satellite System started live class transmissions yesterday for Karnataka State’s Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) across its 100 affiliated colleges in Karnataka. Earlier the transmissions, which commenced in September 2004, were being routed through INSAT-3B. About 50 colleges have been provided with interactive terminals for two way audio and two way video interactions through EDUSAT.

  • Crown Media sells intl business including Hallmark for $242 million

    MUMBAI: Crown Media Holdings which owns and operates the Hallmark Channel, has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its international business to a group of investors for $242 million.
     

    The sale by Crown Media includes the international versions of the Hallmark Channel. Hallmark which specialises in family oriented fare is distributed outside the US to about 60 million subscribers in 152 countries, The sale also covers the international rights to over 580 titles in the Crown Media library, and the state-of-the-art broadcast facility based in Denver, Colorado, which will continue to distribute the channels throughout the world.

    The sale has been made to a group of investors comprised of Providence Equity Partners, 3i and UK television executive David Elstein.
     
     

    As a result all employees of the international business as well as the broadcast facility will be employed by the investor group. Proceeds from the transaction will be used by Crown Media to reduce outstanding indebtedness under its bank credit facility, for the repayment of certain intercompany receivables and the payment of other liabilities.

    It was only a matter of time before Crown Media took this decision. In 2003 Crown Media’s international operations lost $21 million on about $83 million of revenue. The warning signs that Hallmark was not doing well in Asia came in 2002. That year the company closed down its Singapore sales office. It had also reduced the number feeds for the Asia Pacific region from seven to just two.

    Dwelling on the transaction Crown Media president and CEO David Evans said, “We are very pleased to have signed this agreement. We are confident that the investor group will capitalise on its global media expertise to continue to expand this international business, while we focus our efforts on maintaining the tremendous growth in ratings and distribution we have been able to generate in our domestic business. From a financial perspective, this is an excellent opportunity for our company to reduce leverage and improve our overall capital structure.”

    The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the applicable regulatory authorities. The company expects to obtain approval and complete the transaction within six weeks.

    Providence Equity Partners is a private investment firm. It specialises in equity investments in communications and media companies around the world. The principals of Providence Equity manage funds with over $9.0 billion in equity commitments.

    Elstein is a former Channel 5 CEO. He now serves as the chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council, the Commercial Radio Companies Association, Really Useful Theatres Limited, Screen Digest Limited, Sports Network and Digital Classics.