Satellite Broadcasting

Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch blasted the British Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday, calling the institution elitist and unconcerned with viewers' opinions. Murdoch's comments at a broadcasting forum in London followed a government announcement on Monday that it will drop plans to make two of Britain's four existing channels available by satellite. "Broadcasting has in (Great Britain) for too long been the preserve of the old Establishment," Murdoch said.

DirecTV subscribers no longer have to go searching for Nickelodeon's "Dora the Explorer" or Comedy Central's "The Daily Show. " Ending a nine-day fight over terms of a new contract, Viacom Inc. reached an agreement with satellite broadcaster DirecTV on Friday to return more than a dozen cable channels -- including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and VH1 -- to the pay-television provider. Customers are likely to notice a bump in their monthly bill from DirecTV as a result of the new deal, but executives there said Viacom is getting less than it wanted.

America's first satellite broadcasting system is expected to debut this year, beaming 150 TV channels of shows, movies and sporting events to homes across the country that are equipped with pizza-sized satellite dishes. The high-powered, direct-to-home satellite broadcasting will originate in the $100 million Castle Rock Broadcast Center in Castle Rock, Colo., 30 miles south of Denver.

Satellite broadcaster Dish Network dropped the cable channel AMC from its service as a feud between the programmer and distributor showed no signs of being resolved. The dispute means that AMC has lost access to about 14 million homes just weeks before one of its most high-profile original shows, the drama "Breaking Bad," is set to return. Dish has also dropped other channels owned by AMC parent AMC Networks Inc., including IFC, Sundance and WE TV. The latest contract between the two companies expired Saturday.

MCI, News Corp. to Build Satellite Broadcast Center: Two joint ventures of the nation's No. 2 long-distance telephone company and Australia's News Corp. said they plan to build a $130-million advanced satellite and data uplink facility and broadcast operations center in the Phoenix area. American Sky Broadcasting and SkyMCI, both joint ventures of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Washington, D.C.-based MCI, were formed in April to provide multimedia direct satellite services.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Softbank Corp., Japan's largest distributor of personal computer software, on Tuesday officially kicked off their JSkyB satellite broadcasting venture. The new company, whose full name is Japan Sky Broadcasting Co., will begin full-scale broadcasts in Japan by April 1998. JSkyB, a 50-50 venture of the two companies, was first announced in June.

A deal in satellite television last week in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and EchoStar agreed to merge their direct-broadcast satellite operations in the United States has aroused a lot of comment. The agreement is a signal that direct-broadcast satellite, or DBS, television, although only in its infancy, will become a sizable industry, a competitor to cable and other forms of information distribution. The deal itself looks relatively unexciting: News Corp.

EchoStar Communications Corp. will raise rates on two of its Dish Network packages Feb. 1. The monthly price of the satellite broadcasting company's basic package, now called America's Top 40, will increase 10% to $21.99. It is the first time the company has raised its bottom-line rates since 1996. The package will be renamed America's Top 50 because it has included 50 channels for about a year, spokesman Marc Lumpkin said.

In the week before the biggest TV-viewing day of the year, DirecTV launched an unprecedented electronic attack on an estimated 100,000 consumers who had been bootlegging its satellite TV service. The El Segundo-based company killed--via satellite--pirated pieces of hardware that had enabled viewers in the U.S. and abroad to see a broad range of programming, including premium channels and pay-per-view events that they had not paid for.

News Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp. have tentatively agreed on the broad outline of a transaction to combine their satellite operations and create the world's largest pay television provider, according to sources close to the negotiations. The merged entity, valued at $70 billion, would combine Hughes' DirecTV, the largest satellite television provider in the United States, and News Corp.'s BSkyB and StarTV services, which dominate Britain and Asia.

A small market TV broadcaster has apparently decided to skip doing business with Dish Networks in part because of its commercial skipping device known as the AutoHop. Dish Network said Hoak Media Corp., a Dallas company that owns 14 television stations in markets that include Grand Junction, Colo.; Fargo, N.D.; and Lincoln, Neb., was no longer going to allow its signals to be carried by the satellite broadcaster. "Hoak doesn't respect customer control — they are telling customers they must watch commercials," said David Shull, Dish's senior vice president of programming.

NEW YORK - Satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp.'s new Auto Hop feature, which makes it easier for viewers to avoid watching commercials, is not winning the company any fans in the television business. Dish's new offering lets customers block commercials from recorded shows that have aired on broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox during the previous day. Although consumers with digital video recorders can already fast-forward through commercials of recorded shows, Auto Hop takes it a step further.

James Murdoch's resignation as chairman of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting comes ahead of a government report expected to be critical of his handling of the ethics scandal at News Corp.'s British tabloids. Murdoch, in announcing his decision Tuesday, alluded to the ongoing investigations into alleged phone hacking and police bribery by News Corp.'s the Sun and the now-closed News of the World. Problems at the tabloids last summer derailed the media conglomerate's plans to take control of Britain's dominant pay-TV provider, in which it holds a 39% interest, with a $12-billion purchase of all outstanding BSkyB shares.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc. has agreed to double the size of its El Segundo headquarters in a lease valued at more than $300 million. DirecTV, which beams television service to more than 19 million subscribers, will rent 630,000 square feet in three buildings on East Imperial Highway near Los Angeles International Airport, landlord Kilroy Realty Corp. said Wednesday. The broadcaster said it expects to expand into a total of up to 720,000 square feet over the course of the nearly 16-year agreement.

News Corp. has struck a new deal to that will keep its powerful cable and broadcast channels on satellite broadcaster DirecTV. The two sides had been feuding over a new contract, and DirecTV, which has more than 19 million subscribers, was set to drop more than two dozen News Corp.-owned Fox cable networks Tuesday. Channels that are part of the agreement include the popular FX network and Los Angeles regional sports outlets Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West. Monday's accord not only consists of Fox's cable channels but also the local television stations that carry the programming of the Fox Broadcasting Co., including National Football League games and the popular comedies "Glee" and "New Girl.

With three days to go before their current agreement expires, DirecTV and News Corp. are still far apart on a deal to keep more than 25 networks on the satellite broadcaster's programming service. Among the News Corp.-owned channels DirecTV is prepared to drop Tuesday are the popular FX network and 19 regional sports channels, including Prime Ticket and Fox Sports West in Los Angeles. Not part of the dispute are Fox's broadcast television stations and Fox News. DirecTV said News Corp.'s Fox Cable unit was demanding a 40% fee increase to keep carrying the channels.

The Cuban government on Saturday said that it had not jammed Los Angeles-based satellite broadcasts to Iran and that it blocked only radio and television signals beamed illegally at Cuba. A U.S. broadcast agency and NITV, which includes programming critical of the Iranian government and supportive of pro-democracy demonstrations, accused communist-run Cuba last week of interfering with transmissions. The Cuban authorities agreed to investigate Friday at the request of the State Department.

Walt Disney Co. will offer its radio stations through satellite broadcasters Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. Sirius and XM will offer ESPN Radio, Radio Disney and ABC News and Talk, the companies said. Sirius also will offer ESPNews and the "Midnight Cowboy Trucking Show." XM Satellite plans to begin airing as many as 100 channels of news and music from two satellites to U.S. motorists for $9.95 a month by the end of September.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's latest effort at damage control, abruptly shelving his bid to take over Britain's biggest satellite broadcaster, shows no sign of turning back the rising tide of public anger against him and his giant News Corp. The decision to ditch the $12-billion bid, at least temporarily, was a humiliating turnaround for Murdoch, who is struggling to keep the fallout from a deepening newspaper phone-hacking scandal from contaminating the rest of his global media empire.

Embattled media magnate Rupert Murdoch's bid for control of Britain's biggest satellite broadcaster ran into further trouble Monday, even as new reports surfaced that a former prime minister and senior members of the royal family were possible targets of a phone-hacking campaign by journalists. Murdoch's long-running attempt to add satellite TV company BSkyB to his News Corp. media conglomerate faces several months of delay after the British government decided to refer the $12-billion bid to regulators charged with determining whether allowing ownership by Murdoch would violate anti-monopoly rules.