7 Star Cable, respondent in the court case filed by ESPN Star, has taken umbrage against media reports (see ESPN-Star Sports vs 7 Star: Both claim victories) that have refused to accord it absolute victory in the matter.
According to Shamim Shaikh, a partner in the cable TV independent that operates in Mumbai‘s northern suburbs, the broadcaster has not reaped any benefit from the high court decree. The court, in its order asked the cable op to pay its outstanding dues to ESPN Software and allowed the broadcaster to cut off connections to hotels where its channels were being beamed through 7 Star.

Shaikh insists that 7 Star had never refused to pay the broadcaster its dues. In fact, he says that his company had made a payment by cheque much earlier to ESPN Star‘s Mumbai distribution head, which had been accepted. It was however returned by ESPN Star Sports later. "So, why is it claiming that it has won on this front?" he asks.

He adds that the court allowed it to furnish a bank guarantee for the amount that would have been payable had the contract been in force for the period from 22 August 2001 to 30 November 2001.

An acerbic Shaikh contends that all broadcasters‘ distribution agreements with cable ops are ‘one-sided‘ and loaded in the formers‘ favour. The agreements usually include clauses that the rates can be changed arbitrarily, says Shaikh, and that cable ops often are not given a copy of the agreement.

He alleges that broadcasters often pick on cable ops only when there‘s an interesting telecast round the corner. "Didn‘t they know earlier that we had been showing their channels in hotels all this while?" he fumes.

Shaikh is also bitter about the claim of 100,000 subscribers put out by ESPN. Alleging that the broadcaster was making contradictory statements, he says that if they believed the subscriber base was so broad, why have they asked for disclosure of only 20,000 subscribers.

"Let them prove our subscriber base and then extract the exact dues from us," he says. "Last year, the broadcaster reduced our subscriber base from 8,000 to 7,000. Why did that happen? This year they want to increase it to 20,000? Why can‘t they be consistent?" he queries.

US based Cable Television Laboratories Inc has adopted the middleware software developed by Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), for advanced OpenCable digital set-top boxes that are being deployed throughout North America from mid November.
CableLabs is the technology consortium for cable system operators in North and South America and is now the point organization for continuing cooperation with DVB, which has established a special middleware task force group to coordinate this effort.

The DVB platform called Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) will be part of the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) that is the middleware software portion of OpenCable. Cable connected households will be able to access both digital broadcasting and interactive digital applications through the OpenCable box.

The DVB Project an industry-led consortium, was formed in 1993, and comprises of over 300 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, software developers and regulatory bodies. With members in more than 35 countries, the project is committed to designing global standards for the delivery of digital television and data services. The DVB standards cover all aspects of digital television from transmission through interfacing, conditional access, and interactivity for digital video, audio, and data and their objective is to create unity in the march towards global standardization, interoperability, and future proofing.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will get its latest generation satellite Insat-3C into space in early 2002, 16 Januaryy 2002, to be exact, if one goes by a press release from Arianespace, its satellite launch partner.
Insat 3C will be sent into orbit using an Ariane-4 rocket, which may surprise satellite enthusiasts because Isro and Arianespace had initially agreed to an Ariane-5 launch vehicle (flight 143), which had been scheduled for a July blasttoff, but was postponed when a prior flight (Flight 142) ran into trouble.

Flight 142 had a dual satellite payload which did not make it to proper orbit in July, and hence further Ariane-5 missions were aborted until corrections could be made. A committee was appointed to inquire into the mission failure. The enquiry panel had stated that that the malfunction was due to the combustion instability at the ‘EPS‘ upper stage ignition due to the abnormally high pressure gradient in the combustion chamber.

The Arianespace press release adds that: "The recovery plan approved in August is on track towards its goal of resuming Ariane 5 launches in early 2002. All mandatory tests have approved Ariane 5 for launch. Resumption of Ariane 5 is on schedule for late January 2002. The complete recovery plan will increase the fiability and enhance quality of the launcher.

"Ariane 5 is the only new generation launcher which is available, qualified and operational today. It is already adapted to the evolution of the market and to the satellites of the next generation : Ariane 5 ESC-A will reach 10 tons performance mid 2002.

"The Ariane 5 return-to-flight program achieved a major milestone on 10 November when the first Aestus engine ignition test was performed on the modified P4-2 test bench in Lampoldshausen, Germany. Modifications to the Lampoldshausen test bench were undertaken to better simulate the flight conditions during ground tests with the Aestus engine. "The test firing phase clears the way for the continuation of the test program as defined for the action plan‘s next phase. Objectives of the next phase are improvement and qualification of the Aestus engine‘s ignition sequence. "Arianespace conducted the first phase of the next launch campaign (Ariane 511/Flight 145) during late September and early October. The heavy-lift launcher‘s two solid booster stages were mated to the core cryogenic stage, and the vehicle equipment bay was installed atop it. An EPS upper stage was temporarily modified stand and digital models will be used in an attempt to duplicate the conditions which led to the Flight 142 malfunction in July. The P4-2 stand will subsequently be used for acceptance firing tests of the Aestus engines for the upcoming Ariane 5 launchers, as well as for tests to qualify the new ignition sequence."