Satellite services company TelecomSat of Tokyo has teamed up with Nikkatsu, a movie production company and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co to share a satellite transponder leased from Japan Communications Satellite, the aim being to reduce the initial investment required from each by also sharing ground facilities: TelecomSat is to begin a corporate video network service next summer, while Nikkatsu plans to produce TV programmes and Matsushita plans to use the link in inter-company communications services, including leasing of satellite circuits; each of the three will lease spare transponder line time to the others when requested; the contract price for use of the transponder is between $1.5m and $4.5m annually and to recover their investment costs as quickly as possible, leasers need to maximise transponder usage.