新闻集团改变卫星策略

News Corp. Changes Satellite Tack


News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, renowned for avoiding the huge expense of owning satellites, is about to surprise many investors by taking the opposite tack with his newly acquired U.S. assets.

Under News Corp. control, Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV unit will continue financing and building its own satellite fleet for direct-to-home broadcasting, according to industry officials familiar with the details. News Corp., they say, doesn't want to lease capacity from others, because then it would be at the mercy of price increases.

That approach is contrary to what News Corp. has adopted in other parts of the world, and it's different from what many investors and Wall Street analysts had expected here. The move is likely to inhibit players such as Luxembourg's SES Global SA from growing in the U.S. market by leasing capacity to DirecTV.

In another decision expected to catch much of the satellite industry off guard, News Corp. doesn't have any plans to immediately shed all or parts of PanAmSat Corp., a satellite operator 81% controlled by Hughes, to generate cash.

Before federal regulators last week cleared News Corp.'s $6.6 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in Hughes, many industry watchers were convinced that the new management would quickly take steps to dispose of all or parts of PanAmSat. Even some News Corp. insiders indicated that was likely.

The News-Hughes transaction closed Monday, with parent General Motors Corp. splitting off Hughes and News Corp. acquiring 34% of the company for cash and stock.


In yet another unexpected initiative, Chase Carey, the new chief executive of Hughes, has extended an olive branch to Mr. Murdoch's long-time nemesis Charles Ergen, chairman of satellite-broadcaster EchoStar Communications Corp. In an interview over the weekend, Mr. Carey said DirecTV "is open to sharing" capacity and spectrum with EchoStar's Dish network for carrying some local channels and perhaps high-definition programming.

In Europe, Asia and Latin America, where News Corp. partnerships have garnered well over 10 million satellite-TV subscribers, News Corp. has relied exclusively on leased capacity. Building, launching and insuring a large, state-of-the-art satellite can cost more than $750 million.

But now, News. Corp. officials "want to control their own destiny" by owning rather than leasing spacecraft, said Lehman Brothers analyst Vijay Jayant. "That way you can control not only price, but technology."

PanAmSat, the largest U.S. satellite operator, isn't considered core to News Corp.'s interest in revving up growth at DirecTV with new consumer initiatives. PanAmSat's focus is on distributing cable channels and providing other services. While certainly not ruling out an eventual sale of PanAmSat if the price is right, Mr. Murdoch's team wants to damp expectations that it's committed to shed the asset rapidly.

By deferring big-ticket projects, increasing cash flow and boosting PanAmSat's stock price, PanAmSat's chief executive, Joseph Wright, has sought to convince News Corp. of his company's long-term value. Meanwhile, PanAmSat over the past year has had preliminary approaches from a handful of private-equity groups eager to start possible acquisition talks.

Mr. Wright also continues to flirt with possible acquisitions of his own, most prominently Paris-based Eutelsat SA, which is the No. 2 satellite operator in Europe, after SES. Industry officials say Mr. Wright and Giuliano Berretta, his counterpart at Eutelsat, continue to explore the idea of combining forces, but the recent conversations never got serious, partly because of disagreements about who would control the potential new entity.
新闻集团改变卫星策略

以不愿花大价钱拥有卫星而闻名的新闻集团(News Corp.)首席执行长鲁珀特?梅铎(Rupert Murdoch, 又译：鲁珀特?默多克)可能将给许多投资者带来意外，他将对新收购的美国资产采取不同的方法。

知情行业人士称，在新闻集团控制下，休斯电子(Hughes Electronics Corp.)子公司DirecTV将继续融资并建造用于直接向家庭播出节目的自有卫星。他们说，新闻集团不希望从其他公司租赁空间，因为那样做会导致公司对价格的上涨无能为力。

这个策略与新闻集团在世界其他地区的策略完全相反，也不同于许多投资者和华尔街分析师预期的方法。此举可能将约束一些公司在美国市场的发展，比如说，卢森堡的SES Global SA就曾指望通过向DirecTV出租卫星轨道来拓展美国市场业务。

预计另外一个决定也将使大多数卫星行业人士感到意外，新闻集团不打算马上通过剥离卫星运营商PanAmSat Corp.的全部或部分资产来获取现金。休斯电子拥有PanAmSat 81%的股份。

美国联邦通讯委员会(Federal Communications Commission, FCC)上周五批准了新闻集团从通用汽车(General Motors Corp., GM)手中收购休斯电子股权的计划，交易总金额66亿美元。

上述交易是今年4月份提出的，它将使新闻集团获得1,100万个卫星电视用户，并将休斯电子旗下的DirectTV与新闻集团旗下的子公司Fox电视合并在一起。而新闻集团将因此成为仅次于康卡斯特(Comcast Corp., CMCSA)的美国第二大付费电视服务供应商。

梅铎制定DirecTV业务发展宏图

Murdoch Plans
Bells, Whistles
For DirecTV


As Rupert Murdoch prepares to take control of satellite-television provider DirecTV, he is dwelling on details intended to change the way Americans watch TV.

For starters, if the News Corp. chairman has his way, viewers using DirecTV technology will soon be able to vote for their favorite contestant on his Fox Network's "American Idol." They will be able to select the camera angles they want to use on replays on the "Sunday Ticket," DirecTV's already popular smorgasbord of National Football League subscription games. And they will be able to navigate it all -- from surfing the news to peeking at 30-second previews of coming shows -- with the help of a souped-up on-screen programming guide. Only one or two clicks of the remote will be required for such features, using multiple screens and viewer-friendly pop-up commands.

"Rupert has lots of interests, but right now he seems really focused on the intricacies of DirecTV," says Chase Carey, Mr. Murdoch's point man on the deal, who has received a barrage of calls from the boss delving into such nitty-gritty issues.


And why not? News Corp. believes viewers will pay a premium for such features and be less likely to switch services if someone else offers a lower price. If such is the case, the company should find out soon enough. After struggling for two decades to enter the U.S. satellite-television business, federal regulators are as early as Friday expected to approve News Corp.'s acquisition of a 34% stake in General Motors Corp.'s Hughes Electronics, giving 72-year-old Mr. Murdoch control of DirecTV.

Mr. Murdoch is intent on revving up growth at DirecTV, which is already the nation's top satellite-to-home broadcaster. To do that, the service needs to find new ways of adding subscribers at a time when satellite-TV growth has slowed. Hence the search for new gimmicks that will persuade customers to spend more money each month for TV programming -- and prevent them from switching to rivals. DirecTV, for instance, has been struggling with turnover of 20% or more during the past few years.

Tackling both problems at once, Mr. Murdoch plans to engage in lowball pricing. News Corp.'s pitch will include a new ad campaign aggressively promoting DirecTV's sports programming and touting how easily viewers can enjoy the soon-to-be introduced extra features.

Perhaps more important, though, is the effort to use innovative software and a new generation of heavily subsidized consumer equipment -- already successfully road-tested on News Corp.'s BskyB satellite-broadcasting affiliate in Britain.

Mr. Murdoch declines to discuss his plans for Hughes, citing the regulatory review by the Federal Communications Commission. His top lieutenants likewise have refrained from going public with details. In discussions with industry officials and filings with the FCC, however, News Corp. has sketched out a road map that has put the competition squarely on the defensive.

In recent months, DirecTV's biggest satellite and cable competitors, EchoStar Communications Corp. and Comcast Corp., have launched sales promotions of digital video recorders to beat News Corp. to the punch. Such set-top boxes, which are at the center of News Corp's global strategy, are akin to computer hard drives. They offer viewers the ability to capture, store and decide how to play back hundreds of hours of movies, sports and other programs -- when and how they want to see them. Rivals have also used Mr. Murdoch's impending entry on the satellite scene to drive tougher deals with programmers, arguing that with another big competitor on the scene there is no way they will be able to pass on the costs to consumers.


EchoStar Chief Executive Charlie Ergen, whose own bid for Hughes was disallowed by regulators last year, worries about what News Corp. will do in the U.S. market. "There's no company in the world today that knows more about satellite TV," he says. "In this business ... they are the best."

Mr. Murdoch has been a pioneer in the global satellite-TV business, setting up BskyB and Asia's StarTV beginning in 1989. Since then, he has added services in Latin America and Southern Europe and now has about 10 million subscribers world-wide. In addition, News Corp. owns controlling stakes in several technology companies that provide both software and hardware to his satellite systems, including NDS Group PLC, which makes "smart cards" for running set-top boxes, and Gemstar-TV Guide, which provides electronic program guides. DirecTV will have a combination of branding, marketing and distribution advantages that "no one else in the industry can match," says Jimmy Schaeffler, head of communications-consulting firm Carmel Group.

One only has to look at Britain to get some inkling of how Mr. Murdoch's plans might play out in the U.S. He first set up his British satellite outfit in 1989, but the relevant strategy got started nearly a decade later with the advent of digital-satellite equipment. In 1998, BSkyB had about 3.5 million subscribers and faced a tough challenge from British Broadcasting Corp., and a new digital service launched by two other private British broadcasters.

BSkyB countered by giving away, at an eventual cost of around $2 billion, a slew of new, higher-tech set-top boxes. It then firmed up its hold on broadcasting rights to the Premiership, Britain's top soccer league, thus making a Sky subscription indispensable for sports fans. And finally, it began adding interactive features, stretching from shopping to sports betting.

While this forced BSkyB into the red for several years and prompted increased antitrust scrutiny, it also drove its main private competitor out of business and laid the groundwork for the concern's current profitability.

In light of News Corp.'s track record in Europe, the FCC is expected to put some modest safeguards in place to make sure that the company doesn't use its programming presence in the U.S., via the Fox Network and Fox Sports, to put competitors at a disadvantage. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is urging commissioners to approve a novel arbitration system to handle complaints by cable operators about News Corp.'s pricing or allegations that the company is unfairly favoring DirecTV by withholding its Fox channels from cable systems.

News Corp. faces other challenges in applying its British experience to the U.S. market. Increasingly, U.S. cable operators are offering customers a "triple play" package of broadcast, Internet and telephone services that will be hard for DirecTV to match in the short term. It also is tough for DirecTV to lock up high-demand sports programming to the extent BSkyB has been able to at home. EchoStar, for example, this month announced a deal with the National Basketball Association to broadcast a package of games in high-definition format.

What's more, the interactive features that News Corp. has touted have only provided around one-third of the additional revenue that BSkyB had been projecting. Interactive home-shopping and e-mail services have failed to capture the imagination of subscribers. Britons still aren't using their TV to order pizza.

Still, in a September filing with the FCC, News Corp. emphasized its "unparalleled" record in offering interactive services and argued that it is "in a unique position to help Hughes replicate BSkyB's success" with DirecTV.

Starting in the middle of next year, DirecTV will offer some of the new interactive services. By 2006, it plans to install at least one million "fully integrated digital video recorders" annually. Right now, DirecTV has only about 750,000 of these boxes in the market, covering about 6% of its subscribers, and "we're going to have trouble building them fast enough" to satisfy demand, predicts Eddy Hartenstein, slated to be vice chairman of the combined company.

News Corp. also says it will spend $1 billion boosting the capacity of DirecTV's satellite fleet, so it can carry more local channels and ensure capacity for interactive services as well as high-definition programming.

The benchmarks Mr. Murdoch has set are high. He thinks DirecTV's subscriber base can grow from 12 million to 20 million by the end of the decade. On top of that would be the combined 2.5 million subscribers of DirecTV and News Corp.'s own Latin American satellite services. In the end, the News Corp. satellite-TV empire will span the globe, giving Mr. Murdoch unheard-of economies of scale in an industry where size really does matter.
梅铎制定DirecTV业务发展宏图

鲁珀特?梅铎(Rupert Murdoch, 又译：鲁珀特?默多克)正制定旨在改变美国人收看电视节目方式的详细计划，为接掌卫星电视供应商DirecTV作准备。

如果这位新闻集团(News Corp.)董事长的计划生效，根据其初步方案，使用DirecTV技术的电视观众不久就可投票选出他们钟爱的体育比赛节目，或在观看体育节目时选择镜头回放的摄像角度。此外，他们还可以借助屏幕上简洁的设置菜单浏览所有的电视频道。这类特色服务只需通过点击遥控器上的按钮、利用画中画和界面友好的弹出式菜单指令就可轻松实现。

新闻集团相信观众愿意为这类特色服务支付更多费用。这样做也可在其他公司收费较低的情况下，降低用户转用其他公司服务的风险。

过去20年来，新闻集团一直为进军美国的卫星电视市场而努力。市场预计美国联邦监管机构最早将在今日批准新闻集团收购通用汽车(General Motors Corp., GM)旗下休斯电子(Hughes Electronics)34%的股权，使今年72岁的梅铎得到DirecTV的控制权。

DirecTV已经是全美顶尖的卫星广播公司，但梅铎计划加快DirecTV的业务增长。为实现这一目的，DirecTV有必要在卫星电视增长放缓的情况下增加用户。因此，开发新服务将使用户甘愿每月为收看电视节目多掏腰包，并防止他们流失到竞争对手阵营。举例来说，过去几年来DirecTV的用户流失率一直高达20%甚至更多。

为立即解决这两个问题，梅铎计划向客户提供价格补贴方案。新闻集团的重点方案将包括发起一轮新的广告活动。但更重要的可能是对创新软件的利用，以及向消费者提供购买新设备的大幅补贴。新闻集团已在英国天空广播公司(BskyB)试验这种促销方法，结果大为成功。英国天空广播公司是新闻集团在英国的关联公司，提供卫星广播服务。

梅铎拒绝详细说明他为休斯电子所制定的计划，原因是美国联邦通讯委员会(Federal Communications Commission , 简称FCC)正在对这宗交易进行评估。他的高级助理们也拒绝对外披露计划细节。不过，新闻集团与业内人士进行探讨时已简要地叙述了这项计划，也在向FCC提交的文件中提及计划，这迫使竞争对手们不得不拿出对策。

近几个月来，DirecTV最大的卫星电视和有线电视服务竞争对手－－EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH)和康卡斯特(Comcast Corp., CMCSA, CMCSK)已推出数码录影机(DVR)的促销活动，对新闻集团进行有力打击。这种机顶盒的外形类似于电脑硬盘。这类产品正是新闻集团全球策略的重点。电视观众可利用该产品捕捉、存储电视画面，并回放过去数百小时的电影、体育节目或其他电视节目。

通讯咨询公司Carmel Group负责人Jimmy Schaefler称，DirecTV在品牌、营销和分销方面拥有综合优势，业内无对手能与之抗衡。

考虑到新闻集团在欧洲取得的战绩，FCC很可能会制定一些适中的保护性条款，用以确保该公司无法利用其在美国电视市场的优势使竞争对手处于不利地位。新闻集团凭借福克斯电视网(Fox Network)和福克斯体育频道(Fox Sports)在美国打响了知名度。新闻集团目前在将英国的经验应用于美国市场方面面临挑战。

现在，越来越多的美国有线电视运营商向客户提供集广播、互联网、电话服务为一体的套餐服务。短期来看，DirecTV难以推出与之抗衡的服务。此外，公司也难以将高需求的体育节目升级至英国天空广播公司已经达到的水平。

另外，新闻集团大力宣传的互动特色服务的创收仅达到英国天空广播公司原先预期的1/3左右。互动式家庭购物服务和电子邮件服务未能激起用户的兴趣。

自明年年中起，DirecTV将提供部分新的互动服务。该公司计划在2006年之前，每年至少新增100万综合DVR用户。DirecTV目前仅拥有约75万DVR用户，相当于公司用户总数的6%左右。新闻集团还表示将斥资10亿美元用于提高DirecTV卫星的传送容量，从而可以传送更多当地电视频道的电视节目，保证互动服务和高清晰电视节目的容量。

梅铎认为，未来10年，DirecTV的用户基础将从1,200万增长至2,000万。其中不包括同时订购新闻集团旗下拉美卫星服务的250万用户。新闻集团的卫星电视服务最终将覆盖全球，使梅铎在这一行业拥有空前强大的业务规模。在卫星电视服务行业，业务规模的大小著实至关重要。