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Arianespace looks to continuing its leadership in 2002

Submitted by ITV Production on Jan 09, 2002

Even as the satellite launch sector saw a global recession in 2001, Arianespace took credit for maintaining a strong lead in the commercial space transportation segment.

While the year saw a 30 per cent reduction in the number of satellite launches, with 58 successful launches as against 82 in 2000, Arianespace managed to win 13 launch service contracts out of a total 25 signed worldwide during the year. The company performed eight launches that carried 11 of the 16 geostationary satellites that competed for a commercial launch in 2001.

Although the Ariane 5 launch on 12 July 2001 left the payload, Artemis and BSat 2b, in useless orbits, Artemis is expected to be able to reach geostationary orbit on its own while BSat 2b was declared a total loss.

The company is however upbeat, claiming that it ended 2001 on a strong note, signing contracts to launch satellites for Orbital Sciences Corp of the US and the European operator Eutelsat. Orbital Sciences Corp‘s order is for the launch of BSAT-2C on behalf of the Japanese operator B-SAT. B-SAT2C is a follow-on to B-SAT2A successfully lofted by Arianespace in March 2001, and the new 1,300-kg. spacecraft will feature 4 Ku-band transponders.

As of 7 January, Arianespace‘s backlog stands at 51 payloads to be launched, including nine ATV missions for the International Space Station. The year just concluded saw Arianespace make progress on the technical and industrial fronts, claims the company. The new S5 payload process complex was inaugurated at the Ariane launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, providing Arianespace with the most modern facility of its kind in the world. This massive satellite checkout and processing centre is sized to handle spacecraft for up to four launch campaigns simultaneously.

The upgradation of the Ariane 5 launch facilities will boost Ariane 5‘s payload capacity to 10 metric tons on missions to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

The service entry of the ESC-A cryogenic upper stage is also

'Mummy' at centre of HBO's new year plans

Submitted by ITV Production on Jan 08, 2002

News Headline

After the promotional big bang that was Band of Brothers, HBO‘s $ 120 million epic miniseries, the premiere English movie channel kicks off the new year by getting back to what it does best - showcasing Hollywood blockbusters

Premiering on 12 January at 9:30 pm is the 1999 hit Mummy. The adventure romantic comedy is the centrepiece of HBO‘s promotional plans for the first quarter of the year, Shruti Bajpai, director marketing, HBO South Asia said today.

And following up on a well received effort last year which saw February having Valentine‘s specials and March witnessing Oscar winners in the run-up to the Oscars, this year will have a similar thematic line-up Bajpai said.

Outlining the year gone by, Bajpai said HBO‘s India operations achieved nearly twice the ad revenue target that had been set at the beginning of 2001. She said the economic downturn had not adversely affected the channel at all and that there had been no difficulty in filling inventories.

Outlining the success they had achieved, Bajpai said HBO had seen 100 advertisers across various categories buying air time in 2001. Queried about the poor ratings of Band of Brothers in contrast to the kind of promotional push that went behind it, she said the series did very well for the channel because of the quality associations that went with it (Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced the 10-part series).

As far as ratings are concerned, the biggest hit of the year for the channel was the family movie Stuart Little which had a rating of 1.2 (AC Nielsen‘s TAM data), Bajpai said.

Elaborating on the programming aspect, Bajpai said Indian viewer profile surveys indicate that the popular genres among Indian viewers were action, emotional dramas, and thrillers.