Public broadcasters in the Czech Republic (Ceska televize) and Slovakia (Radio and Television Slovakia) will begin test transmissions of Ultra HD under a collaboration with satellite provider SES, the companies said Monday in a joint announcement. Ceska televize said it believes Ultra HD adoption "will be much faster than HD and is eager to make sure it arrives soon in the Czech Republic."

O3b Networks plan to launch four satellites Thursday. The satellites will be part of O3b's network that's designed to connect people "who have historically lacked proper access to the Internet," it said last week in a news release. The satellites are to launch from French Guiana, O3b said. Once launched, they'll go through a period of in-orbit testing before being fully integrated into the O3b network, it said.

SES plans a Feb. 12 Ultra HD conference in London to focus on sorting "out the reality from the hype," the satellite provider said Thursday. The conference will feature keynote speeches and panels on such issues as whether broadcasters will "go for 4K now, or wait for 8K in a few years," and whether the "significant boom" in Ultra HD TV set sales is "being driven by consumer ‘PULL' or manufacturers ‘PUSH,'" SES said. Speakers for the conference include representatives from the BBC, Cisco, the EBU, Ericsson, Samsung, Sky Deutschland and Sony Professional, in addition to those from SES, it said. SES has been active in early Ultra HD broadcast experimentation. The Linkin Park concert Nov. 19 at the O2 World Berlin arena was the world’s first live concert broadcast via satellite encoded in HEVC with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, 50 frames a second and a 10-bit color depth, said SES and Samsung, which teamed up for the event (see 1411130035).

Eutelsat will develop a satellite program aimed at allowing clients to define the performance and flexibility they need from a satellite. The Eutelsat Quantum class of satellites “will set new standards in terms of coverage, bandwidth, power and frequency configurability for users operating in government, mobility and data markets,” Eutelsat said in a news release. The first satellite will be launched in 2018, and be manufactured by Airbus Defense and Space “using its innovative flexible payload technology and a new platform from its affiliate, Surrey Satellite Technology,” it said. The design will give customers access to premium capacity “through footprint shaping and steering, power (Mbps) and frequency band pairing that they will be able to actively define,” it said Monday.

Ultra HD’s future got "a rocket-propelled boost" Saturday with the successful launch of the DirecTV 14 satellite, DirecTV said in a news release. When DirecTV 14 begins operations in early Q2, it will be the first commercial satellite to use the "reverse band" direct broadcast satellite spectrum, providing additional capacity for the delivery of 4K Ultra HD programming and other advanced services, the company said Saturday. DirecTV last month laid claim to becoming the first multichannel video programming distributor to deliver 4K VOD to customer homes (see 1411130039). With additional satellite capacity, DirecTV also plans to launch "linear" 4K TV services in 2016, an executive said at last month’s SatCon conference in New York (see 1411130033).

The DirecTV 14 satellite built by Space Systems/Loral was successfully launched. It's performing post-launch maneuvers according to plan, SSL said Monday in a news release. The satellite was launched Saturday from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle, it said. It deployed its solar arrays on schedule and it began firing its main thruster “in order to start maneuvering into geosynchronous orbit,” SSL said. The digital broadcast satellite will be used to provide Ultra HD and other new consumer services, it said.

Hispasat selected Space Systems/Loral to build the Amazonas 5 satellite. The satellite will provide a wide range of telecom services in Latin America, Hispasat said in a news release. The satellite has a high throughput Ka-band spot beam payload, it said. It also has a Ku-band beam for fixed satellite services, “which will be used for television, corporate networks and other telecommunications applications,” it said Friday.

The global satellite pay-TV industry has had strong growth in the past five years, a Euroconsult report said. Subscriptions reached 196 million homes last year and revenue topped $97 billion, Euroconsult said Thursday in a news release. While key performance indicators of the sector continued to grow, there was a slight slowdown “largely attributable to the lack of dynamism in mature markets,” it said. Emerging markets have been the most active in rolling out new platforms, increasing subscriber bases, growing revenue and adding TV channels, it said. A growing trend in emerging markets, like Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, has been the expansion into new markets for existing players, it said. Emerging markets should account for nearly 100 percent of growth in subscriptions, revenue and the number of TV channels by 2023, Euroconsult said.

The Ariane 5 ECA launch of the DirecTV-14 and GSAT-16 satellites was postponed due to unfavorable weather. The satellites were to be launched Thursday from Kourou, French Guiana, Arianespace said Thursday in a news release. "Another launch date will be decided depending on the evolution of the weather conditions in Kourou."

Comments for the further rulemaking about FCC Part 25 rules for space and earth stations are due Jan. 29, and replies are due March 2. The International Bureau extended the comment deadlines by 45 days, the FCC said Wednesday in a Federal Registernotice. The Satellite Industry Association requested the extension (see 1411130043).