DirecTV Eyes SES Service at 105 Degrees

[Gregg Lengling]

DirecTV took its concerns about SES Americom and its proposal to launch and operate a DBS satellite at the 105-degree orbital slot to the Federal Communications Commission, saying any service from that location poses a threat to DBS operations.

The satellite TV service told the commission - in comments on multichannel competition - that the SES proposal to operate a service at 105 degrees is a departure from FCC policy establishing nine-degree spacing between DBS orbital locations. DirecTV operates its core satellite TV service from 101 degrees, and DirecTV and EchoStar have capacity at 110 degrees.

If deployed, the SES satellite will interfere with other DBS satellites, DirecTV said. "Nine-degree orbital spacing has been the foundation of the U.S. DBS industry since its inception, and billions of dollars have been invested by DirecTV and others to deploy a satellite infrastructure that provides competition to cable monopolies and that extends (multichannel) services to geographic areas un-reached by cable," DirecTV said.

SES had no response to the DirecTV claims. (In the story below, SES Global's Romain Bausch refers to successes so far for Americom2Home).

SES Americom wants to launch a DBS satellite into the 105-degree location to support its Americom2Home effort. SES has an agreement with EchoStar for the satellite TV company to use Americom2Home capacity.

Also in its comments at the FCC, DirecTV asked for quick commission approval of News Corp.'s takeover of a controlling stake in Hughes and the satellite TV company.