ITV

Tag: Worldspace

  • FM radio players protest WorldSpace terrestrial foray

    FM radio players protest WorldSpace terrestrial foray

    NEW DELHI: It is not only the television broadcasters that are grappling with the issue of distribution and competition. Private radio broadcasters too have started sampling irritants in this regard.

    The private sector FM radio players has complained against satellite radio provider WorldSpace’s attempt to get certain licences that would help it distribute the services terrestrially also.

    According to information available with Indiantelevision.com, WorldSpace, India’s only satellite radio service, is trying to get a license for L-band terrestrial repeater from the information and broadcasting ministry, which, if obtained, will help it to transmit its services on moving vehicles terrestrially — the primary target audience of FM radio.

    “Repeaters are basically targeted at subscribers-on-move like in a car, etc. A satellite radio cannot enter into terrestrial segment by any means,” a letter to the government from the Association of radio Operators in India (AROI) states.

    Raising the emotional quotient, AROI seems to be appealing to the conscience of the government by saying, “We fail to understand why the Government of India is working on the WorldSpace application even when a proper guideline on satellite radio in India is still not available.”

    The letter goes on to add that considering FM radio in India is in a nascent stage and the FM radio broadcasters have paid “an exorbitant OTEF (one-time entry fee)”. the government should “protect FM radio industry for at least next 10 years.”

    “Before even waiting for the commissioning of the new stations, the ministry is already making plans to welcome new players into the terrestrial radio arena, directly threatening the existence of the FM Radio licensees. This is not acceptable at all,” the high-pitched AROI letter states.

    The AROI letter has been marked to prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, defence minister Pranab Mukharjee, home minister Shivraj Patil and telecommunication minister Dayanidhi Maran and I&B ministry secretary SK Arora.

    The move of AROI comes at a time when the government is working on putting in place a policy for satellite radio services, including caps on foreign investments, which would force the likes of WordSpace to restructure themselves and find majority Indian partners.

    The AROI letter is also likely to put pressure on the government to bring about stringent regulations relating to satellite radio services. The Sector regulator has already submitted a set of recommendations to the I&B ministry.

  • Worldspace subscription revenues up 160 % in Q4

    Worldspace subscription revenues up 160 % in Q4

    MUMBAI: Radio satellite service provider Worldspace has reported its financial and operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended 31 December, 2005.

    It finished the year with 115,306 subscribers. The company added 40,235 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2005, an increase of approximately 160 per cent over the 15,545 subscribers added in fourth quarter of 2004.

    In India, the company had 74,574 subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2005, up over 100 per cent from 35,670 at the end of the third quarter of 2005 and up nearly 800 per cent from 8,335 at the start of the year.

    At the end of the fourth quarter of 2005, WorldSpace had rolled out its satellite radio services in nine cities in India — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.

    Service in Kolkata, India’s second largest city, was launched in February 2006. Worldspace’s market distribution is now available to a population of nearly 63 million, including nearly 35 million people in the top three economic segments targeted by the company.

    Worldspace chairman and CEO Noah Samara says, “Worldspace made important progress against all of our key operational metrics during the fourth quarter of 2005, especially in delivering strong subscriber growth. We believe we have gained significant traction in our efforts to acquire new subscribers, and will continue to do so as our visibility and brand awareness grow with the roll-out of our service to additional metropolitan areas, supported by targeted marketing campaigns. We also have made great strides in building our senior management teams, internationally and at the corporate level, by adding quality people with key areas of expertise that will be critical to our forward momentum.”

    The firm introduced 19 new programming channels, including the first India sports talk radio channel and many regional language channels in India, as well as the world’s first global hip hop channel, bringing the total number of channels broadcast on WorldSpace’s global system to 220 by the end of the year.

    It also completed an initial public offering (IPO) in August 2005, raising net proceeds of approximately $221 million; It raised strategic capital from and formed a technology sharing partnership with XM Satellite Radio in July 2005, including an investment of $25 million by XM Satellite Radio.

    Also, three-year warrants valued at $37.5 million were issued to XM Satellite Radio exercisable at the IPO price provided XM has made substantial technological contributions to WorldSpace, including in the areas of products, chipsets and terrestrial repeater development and deployment;

    The firm continued the expansion of the distribution and geographic presence in India, with over 650 retail points of presence in nine cities at the end of the year covering approximately 30 million people in Worldspace’s target market segment of the India population; It managed to obtain terrestrial repeater licenses in United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, the first L-band terrestrial repeater licenses for satellite radio.

    Samara adds, “2006 is a pivotal year for WorldSpace.
    We are working hard to gain key regulatory approvals for the delivery of mobile services in certain of our markets, and to increase the variety of our receivers.

    We are moving into more cities in India and we are gaining strength in other countries where subscribers can be added at little incremental cost. We started the year well with the FCC’s approval of our license application for our Afristar-2 satellite, which when launched, will enable us to broaden our offerings in Europe and the Middle East.”

    For the fourth quarter of 2005, WorldSpace reported quarterly revenues of approximately $4.4 million, representing a 95 per cent increase compared with revenues of approximately $2.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2004. Subscription revenue increased approximately 160 per cent to approximately $1.1 million for the fourth quarter of 2005 compared with subscription revenue of approximately $0.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2004. On an annual basis, total revenues for 2005 were $11.7 million in 2005, a 36 per cent increase over 2004 total revenues of $8.6 million. Subscription revenue in 2005 was $3.7 million, a 255 per cent increase over $1.0 million in 2004.

    Worldspace recorded a net loss for the fourth quarter 2005 of $33.2 million compared with a net loss of $418.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2004, a period that included stock compensation expenses and other costs associated with an inter-company consolidation and subsequent debt restructuring.

    For the year, the company’s net loss was $79.9 million compared to a net loss of $577.4 million in 2004. In the fourth quarter of 2005, WorldSpace spent approximately $9.6 million on sales, marketing and subscriber acquisition expenses globally, including $8 million in India compared with $4.9 million and $4.1 million respectively in the third quarter of 2005.

  • Insat-3B lofted successfully

    Insat-3B lofted successfully

    Arianespace and the Indian Space Research Organisation successfuly lifted the first in the third generation of Insat satellites on 22 March at 04:58 Indian time. The Arianespace-505 launcher had an additional payload in the Asiastar satellite which was launched for digital radio service, WorldSpace.

    Asia Star was first injected into orbit 28 minutes after lift-off, and seven minutes later, INSAT-3B was injected (in a three-axis stabilised mode into a Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit – GTO) with a perigee of 560 km and an apogee of 35,770 km and an inclination of 7 degree with respect to the equator.

    The satellite is at present orbiting around the earth with a period of 10.64 hours. The Insat Master Control Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka acquired the telemetry signal from Insat-3B at 5.30 (IST) three minutes prior to its separation from the launcher.

    On separation of the satellite from the composite adopter, satellite health checks were conducted and a series of commands issued from the MCF so as to orient its earth-viewing face towards earth. The outermost panel of the stowed solar array on the south side was also oriented towards the sun to start generating the electrical power required by the satellite during its transfer orbit phase.

    The calibration of the gyros on board the satellite has also been carried out. The operations were completed in about (100 minutes). Insat-3B is being tracked, apart from MCF, Hassan, by INTELSAT Organisation’s ground stations at Perth (Australia), Fucino (Italy) and Lake Cowichan (Canada).

    The satellite will go out of the visibility of MCF, Hassan at about 03:36 pm (IST) this afternoon and will come within the radio visibility of MCF, Hassan at 02:36 am tomorrow.

    The satellite’s orbit is being precisely determined by continuous ranging from the participating TTC stations. The orbit raising operations on INSAT-3B will be carried out by firing the 440 Newton liquid apogee motor on board in stages till the satellite attains its final geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above the equator.

    The first Apogee Motor Firing (AMF-1) is planned during the third transfer orbit tomorrow (March 23, 2000) at about 07:30 am IST. The satellite has about 1,100 kg of propellant (Mono-Methyl Hydrazine – MMH and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen – MON-3) for orbit raising operations as well as for station keeping and in-orbit attitude control for the duration of its designed life of 10 years.

    When the satellite reaches near geo-stationary orbit, deployment of two solar panels and the two antennas will be carried out and the satellite put in its final three-axis stabilised mode. The payloads will be checked out before commissioning the satellite. The deployment of the solar array and the two antennas will be carried out after the satellite attains near geo-synchronous orbit.

    Insat-3B will be collocated with INSAT-2E at 83 deg East longitude. It may be noted that Insat satellites now occupy four slots — Insat-2B and Insat-2C are collocated at 93.5 deg (E) longitude, INSAT-1D and INSAT-2A are collocated at 74 E longitude and Insat-2DT is located at 55 E longitude besides Insat-2E at 83 deg East longitude.

    Insat-3B is primarily intended for business communication, developmental communication and mobile communication. The communication payload provides 12 extended C-band channels, each having a bandwidth of 36 MHz. The Ku-band payload provides three channels, having a bandwidth of 77/72 MHz. The Mobile Satellite Service transponders operate in C/S band frequencies. Compared to INSAT-2C/2D, the power of extended C-band transponders on board INSAT-3B has been increased from 10 W to 15 W and that of Ku-band from 20 W to 55 W.

    Once commissioned, INSAT-3B is expected to further boost the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) services. The major VSAT users include banking and financial institutions, stock markets, white goods sector, fast moving consumer goods sector and medium to heavy engineering companies. Several public and private sector units have established dedicated closed-user group networks for their in-house applications. At present seven transponders from INSAT-2B and INSAT-2C are being used for these applications and INSAT-3B will almost double the transponder capacity for these services. For the first-time Ku-band frequencies will also be used for VSAT services, which enables use of smaller ground terminals.

    INSAT-3B will provide the first set of transponders for Swaran Jayanti Vidya Vikas Antariksh Upagraha Yojana (Vidya Vahini) which had been announced by the Prime Minister on 15 August 15 1998. These transponders will be used exclusively for interactive training and developmental communication and will be a further extension of the present Training and Developmental Communication Channel of Insat that is being used by several agencies.

    Tele-medicine is also expected to be introduced that will help in remote iagnostics and extension of super special hospital treatment to the rural population. INSAT-3B Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) has forward link channel in C X S band and return link in S X C band. MSS can support portable terminals and carry voice, fax or data. It also supports messaging service using reporting terminals.