British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc says it’s still on schedule to start broadcasting Britain’s first digital TV services in the spring, despite delays in the satellite launch programme. BSkyB had planned to rent space on the Astra 2A satellite to beam pictures into viewers homes, but the projected launch date now looks like being delayed pending a Russian investigation into the loss of an AsiaSat satellite on Christmas day. Astra 2A, owned by Societe Europeenne des Satellites, was to have launched in March, using a Proton rocket boosterlaunch vehicle, the same type that failed on the AsiaSat launch. However, a spokesperson for BSkyB said the company’s contract with SES requires the Luxembourg-based firm to move an alternative satellite into the slot Astra 2A would’ve taken. According to the spokesperson, that would see Astra 1D being used to deliver the new 200-channel digital service andAstra 1G, which was successfully launched earlier in December, moving in to take the place previously occupied by Astra 1D. Meanwhile rivals British Digital Broadcasting Plc, which plans to launch its digital terrestrial package of 15 channels later in the year, is set to pend more than $550m to market the digital service during the twelve-year term of its initial license, according to a report in the Financial Times. BDB, which is jointly owned by Granada Group and Carlton Communications Plc, will spend a further 149m pounds on promoting and subsidizing its service over the next two and a half years. The information was disclosed in a confidential appendix to BDB’s license allegedly leaked to the paper. A spokesperson for the Independent Television Commission refused to comment on the voracity of the document. BDB also announced that it has appointed Anthony Sethill as its marketing director. Sethill is currently Managing Director of Amstrad Consumer Electronics and helped in the development of its set-top box. Neither party would be drawn on whether this made Amstrad any more likely to get part of the contract to supply the set-top boxes to British Digital Broadcasting. The company is expected to announce its chief executive shortly, after Flextech chief executive Roger Luard and BSkyB’s David Chance ruled themselves out of the race.
