AsiaSatLink Quarterly Newsletter
Issue 56, Winter 2008 |
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| 2008 Marks AsiaSat's 20th Anniversary | 
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As we step into the Chinese Year of the RAT, on behalf of AsiaSat I wish all AsiaSatLink readers a very happy and successful year ahead!
This year we celebrate AsiaSat's 20th anniversary. The Company was established in 1988. With the launch of AsiaSat 1, Asia's first private regional satellite in April 1990, AsiaSat proudly pioneered satellite television broadcasting in Asia, and has now grown to become the leading regional operator with a fleet of three powerful pan Asian satellites and one replacement satellite under construction and scheduled for launch in 2009.
AsiaSat has successfully built the world's most watched broadcast platform providing access to over 53 countries and regions, and some 70% of the world's population. We are now serving over 100 public and private television and radio broadcasters from around the world, broadcasting more than 240 television channels on AsiaSat, and a large number of world class telecommunications and broadband service providers and corporate enterprises.
We have also diversified our business by forming several satellite related ventures, expanded our ground facilities in Hong Kong, and diversified our services from the provision of transponder capacity to offering a comprehensive range of value added services including signal turnaround and uplink, MCPC platforms and back up services.
Looking ahead, AsiaSat would continue to uphold our commitment to service quality, integrity and diversity to meet the growing and changing demands for satellite services in the years to come.
Peter Jackson
Chief Executive Officer
AsiaSat
The integration and testing of the AsiaSat 5 spacecraft is making good progress. The South communication panel is undergoing C-band and Ku-band payload testing, and initial test data shows the transponders are meeting AsiaSat's exacting specifications.
The North communication panel is having the remaining Ku-band channel amplifiers installed and testing will proceed on the North panel when the South panel is completed. The two large East and West antennas are now ready for Near Field Range testing. The feeds and the associated waveguide and filters have been tested and are ready to be integrated with the reflectors.
AsiaSat 5 is being built with new, high efficiency and more robust liquid propulsion thrusters. These thrusters have now been installed with the propulsion system, and are being tested while the bus is waiting for the communication panels to be completed. The main thruster (MST) for inserting the satellite into geostationary orbit is also in the process of being installed.
The power systems, solar arrays and batteries are near completion. The solar array comprises of two wings, and each wing has three solar panels. One solar panel on each wing will have high efficiency silicon solar cells, and two triple junction gallium arsenide solar cells. The battery is a state-of-the-art lithium Ion battery.
In early November, AsiaSat 5's spacecraft manufacturer Space Systems/Loral and launch service provider Sea Launch Company's Land Launch team conducted a site survey in Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The team members were satisfied with the upgrade and progress of the launch facilities.
AsiaSat 5 is the replacement satellite for AsiaSat 2, scheduled for launch to the 100.5 degrees East orbital location in 2009 from Baikonur Cosmodrome. AsiaSat 5 will offer high-power, expanded coverage and excellent look angles over Asia, Middle East and Australasia for regional and international broadcast, wholesales news distribution, occasional services, VSAT networks and broadband content delivery to these regions.
Bus module of AsiaSat 5
TRACE, a 24/7 international television channel produced from France, signed a new C-band lease on AsiaSat 2 to distribute urban music and culture including fashion, sports, cinema and dance programmes across the Asia Pacific region. TRACE's programming targets over one billion of urban youths around the world and includes special Asian programming blocks with the best Asian urban acts. Launched in 2003, TRACE is available in over 125 countries through its various media properties - digital TV, radio, magazine, web, mobile.
GlobeCast Australia signed a new lease agreement for the use of C-band capacity on AsiaSat 2 for video feed distribution and satellite news gatherings (SNG) applications. GlobeCast Australia is the leading provider of services for international broadcasters in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, operating facilities and links that span the world.
NewSat Limited signed a new Ku-band lease on AsiaSat 4. The capacity is used for establishing a communications network for a major mining company. NewSat, Australia's leading independent satellite services provider, offers a full range of managed communication services, TT&C and carrier monitoring from its teleports in Perth and Adelaide to Australia/Oceania, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and across Europe.
Pakistan TV (PTV) renewed its lease agreements for C-band capacity on AsiaSat 2 and AsiaSat 3S. The PTV family of channels on AsiaSat satellites includes:
PTV Home - PTV's flagship entertainment channel in Urdu
PTV News - a news and current affairs channel in Urdu
PTV National - a regional programming channel in Balochi, Pashto, Punjabi and Sindhi
PTV Global - an overseas service for Pakistanis living abroad in Urdu
AJK TV - a Kashmiri channel providing programming for local viewers in Kashmiri and Gojri
PTV is Pakistan's public broadcaster, and has been an AsiaSat user since 1991.
Reach renewed its leases for C-band capacity on AsiaSat 4 to continue to provide world class data and IP based satellite services to its enterprise and wholesale customers. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Reach is the premier provider of international telecommunications services in Asia.
Teleport Access Service (TAS) of Taiwan expanded its Ku-band Australasia DTH platform on AsiaSat 4 with the addition of a 24-hour religious channel, Hwazan Satellite TV. Besides this free to air service, the platform also distributes television services including Chinese language religious channel DaAi TV, Vietnamese channels Pacific 1, 2 and 3, Cambodian TV channel CTN, and a Russian language DTH package.
Through its teleport in Taiwan, TAS offers a full range of transmission services from signal downlink and turnaround, and uplinking and encryption services to international broadcasters who target local ethnic communities in Australia and New Zealand.
STAR launched a new channel STAR Chinese Movies 2 on AsiaSat 3S. Dedicated to featuring popular Chinese films from the 1970s to 1990s, STAR Chinese Movies 2 has access to more than 600 high-quality and award-winning movies Chinese titles across a wide range of genres, including kung fu and martial arts action, crime, comedy, romantic drama. STAR currently delivers 60 television services in five languages on AsiaSat 3S and is also using AsiaSat 2 for delivering its programming for the Indian market.
China Meteorological Administration Information Centre (CMA-IC) signed a new lease for additional Ku-band capacity on AsiaSat 2 to transmit meteorological information to its users across the region. CMA-IC is responsible for the processing, storage, management and exchange of meteorological data collected nationally and globally.
PetroChina Daqing Geologging Company renewed its Ku-band lease on AsiaSat 4 to continue to operate a corporate VSAT network for communication between the offices and oil drilling sites located across remote areas in China.
Shanghai Jiahua Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. signed a new lease for Ku-band capacity on AsiaSat 3S to provide domestic telecommunications services across China.
China Netcom Beijing Branch Office signed a framework agreement with AsiaSat for the use of AsiaSat 4 Ku-band capacity to develop satellite communications services in China.
TV Cancao Nova, the renowned Brazilian Catholic channel, joined the AsiaSat 2 C-band MCPC platform operated by Satlink Communications in the Middle East, offering unique, free to air programming on spirituality, journalism, children, events, interviews, discussions, music, entertainment, culture as well as promotional programmes.
Based in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, TV Cancao Nova is part of one of the most important Catholic Broadcasting foundations in the world.
Supreme Master Television expanded its service into the Asia Pacific region via AsiaSat 2 and AsiaSat 3S. It is a full time free to air satellite channel carrying a variety of news and inspirational programming that covers a range of genres, from entertainment and film, to news and documentaries, lifestyle and culture. Supreme Master Television currently broadcasts in more than 40 languages with over 30 subtitles serving viewers worldwide.
The Israeli Network commenced broadcasting on AsiaSat 4's Ku-band Australasia beam. The channel consists of programming from Israel's leading television networks, Channel 1, 2, 8 and 10, The Israeli Education TV, The Children's Channel, Hop and The Sports channels, and film and documentaries by independent producers covering a wide range of genres including Israeli news and current affairs, sports, talk show, music and education. The network is available as a pay service to viewers in Australia and New Zealand.
PTC 2008 was held on the 13th to 16th of January in Hawaii. Peter Jackson, CEO of AsiaSat took part in the Satellite CEO roundtable discussion on the C-band spectrum issue. During the discussion, Peter expressed his concern towards the threat from deploying wireless broadband services in the C-band satellite service frequency and urged the users of satellite services to join the battle in preserving C-band spectrum for the satellite industry.
The 30th anniversary PTC 08 conference, organised by Pacific Telecommunications Council, was attended by over 1000 delegates including senior management, industry analysts, researchers and scholars from around the world.
The SUIRG Conference 2007, organised by Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group, was held on the 27th to 29th of November in Hong Kong. Dr. Ya Chiu, AsiaSat's General Manager Operations, hosted the event with over 40 delegates from overseas.
At the conference, attendees shared their insight on interference incident mitigation and suggested approaches to reduce satellite interference. Barry Turner, General Manager Engineering of AsiaSat gave a presentation on the impact of new mobile applications such as WiMax and IMT on C-band satellite service, and summarised the discussion on C-band spectrum for satellite and wireless services concluded at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC-07) on the 16th of November.
During the presentation, Barry expressed the views that the results of the WRC-07 discussion ended in a draw. Despite the satellite industry managed to prevent a worldwide common designation for IMT in C-band, there was no total protection as in ITU Region 3 (Asia), the 3400 to 3500 MHz frequency band has been allocated by countries such as Japan, Korea, Pakistan, China, India, Bangladesh, Iran, New Zealand, Singapore and the French pacific island colonies to mobile on a primary basis and have also identified this band for IMT. He therefore urged the satellite industry to retain a degree of unity and to continue to lobby the individual administrations and work in the ITU study groups.
Delegates exchanged their insights at the SUIRG Conference 2007
AsiaSat's ultimate holding company, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Limited (AsiaSat Holdings), terminated its American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) programme and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on 28th January, 2008. AsiaSat Holdings' listing status on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited remains unchanged.
The deposit agreement between AsiaSat Holdings and its ADR depositary bank, Bank of New York, will be terminated on the 28th of February, and the ADR holders will have until the 28th of May to either swap their ADRs for Hong Kong shares or receive net proceeds of their shares after they are sold by the Bank of New York on the 29th of May.
The delisting from the NYSE was due to the limited trading volume of AsiaSat Holdings' ADRs, in comparison to the associated costs and administration expenses in maintaining such listing. The company believed that the delisting would be in the best interest of the shareholders. AsiaSat Holdings' registration under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 remains currently in effect and the company continues to comply with its disclosure obligations.
SpeedCast Holdings Limited became AsiaSat's 100% owned subsidiary after AsiaSat made a further acquisition of about 28% of the shareholding interest in SpeedCast in October 2007.
AsiaSat made its initial investment in SpeedCast in 2000 and gradually increased its shareholding through several share acquisition agreements with the other shareholders. By taking full control of SpeedCast, AsiaSat is able to simplify the shareholding structure of SpeedCast to allow for more flexible funding to support SpeedCast's future expansion. The acquisition was funded by internal resources of AsiaSat.
SpeedCast Holdings Limited is an investment holding company which 100% owned SpeedCast Limited, a company that provides a comprehensive range of satellite IP based services to customers in over 30 countries.
We supported the Green Christmas/New Year campaign organised by Friends of the Earth, an environmental protection charity based in Hong Kong, for the eleventh year in 2007.
During the 2007 Green Christmas/New Year campaign, AsiaSat helped to spread 'green' messages on conserving energy for a sustainable future for the world by sending only
e cards and made a donation to the charity.
In addition, AsiaSat has also joined a paper recycling programme organised by an environmental recycling service company in Hong Kong and encouraged AsiaSat staff to collect used paper for recycling. The service was first introduced to schools and educational institutions and later on extended to involve major corporations and enterprises in Hong Kong.
Q: I understand that there are HD services onboard AsiaSat, what is HD and how can I receive your HD channel using my existing satellite dish?
A: HD stands for High Definition. HDTV signals offer display resolutions up to 720(720p) active lines and 1280 pixels per line or 1080(1080i or 1080p) active lines and 1920 pixels per line, instead of the 576 active lines and 720 pixels per line provided by the Standard Definition (SD) television. This means a higher quality visual experience.
HDTV also has a screen ratio of 16:9 as compared with most of today's TV broadcasting, which has a screen ratio of 4:3.
To receive free to air HD channel at home using your existing dish, you need to have an "HD Ready" television set, and a HDTV decoder compatible with your TV set. For a subscription based HD service, you would then need to contact the channel provider for the necessary smart card or set top box to watch the service.
Notes:
720p & 1080p - the letter p stands for progressive scan or non-interlaced.
1080i - the letter i stands for interlaced or non-progressive scan.
"HD Ready" concerns the abilities of television receivers to display high definition pictures. In general, "HD Ready" refers to any display that is capable of accepting and displaying a high definition signal at either 720p, 1080i or 1080p.
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If you have any comments or questions regarding AsiaSatLink, please write to: Winnie Pang, Manager - Corporate Affairs, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd., 17/F, The Lee Gardens, 33 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.
Tel: (852) 2500 0880 Fax: (852) 2500 0895 Email: wpang@asiasat.com
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