Intelsat Conference Set for June

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Intelsat's annual Global Telecommunications Meeting, being held June 2-5 in Washington, D.C., will feature a large slate of speakers coming from companies like Verizon, AT&T, BT, Panasonic, Globe Wireless, PCCW, Cisco, Nokia Siemens, Avail Media, Tandberg, iDirect Technologies, Globecast and USTA. Dr. Hamadoun Toure, ITU secretary-general, will be the featured keynote speaker, Intelsat said.

INTERNATIONAL - French triple-play service Orange selected Eutelsat's Hot Bird and Atlantic Bird 3 to handle satellite broadcasting of its TV flow reception. Globecast said it will handle the encoding, encrypting and transmission of Orange TV channels.

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Keep News Corp. Conditions Intact

Citing its own program access skirmishes with the media giant, independent cable operator Massillon asked the Federal Communications Commission to keep intact conditions that News Corp. was forced to accept when it took over a controlling stake in DIRECTV in 2004.

News Corp. has asked the FCC to eliminate the program access conditions tied to its acquisition of the DIRECTV stake given that the company has sold its interests in the satellite TV company to Liberty Media. Conditions placed on the News Corp. deal four years ago include provisions allowing for pay-TV competitor access to key programming properties such as regional sports networks and broadcast stations.

In its FCC comments on the matter, Massillon said its "unfortunate experience" with News Corp. and Fox concerning access to key programming "serves as a highly reliable and dire prediction of the consequences of granting the relief News Corp. has sought."

The MSO also said News Corp.'s Fox unit "has used its excess market power to extract monopoly rents and non-market driven terms and conditions." And if News Corp. and Fox win relief, "Massillon has every reason to believe that Fox will attempt to take unfair advantage of Massillon in upcoming negotiations for renewal," the company said in its filing.