Satellite

SES Americom Inc.’s “AMC-15” satellite launched successfully from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:23 p.m. (EST) Thursday, the company said.

AMC-15 is the first bird SES Americom has committed exclusively to EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network direct-broadcast satellite service.

The satellite will operate at 105 degrees west longitude and deliver advanced video and broadband services to all 50 U.S. states.

EchoStar Communications Corp. would have one year to offer a local market’s TV stations on a single dish under a bill unanimously approved by a House subcommittee Wednesday.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider opposed the provision, saying that it would force it to retreat from about 40 markets that it currently serves and block it from entering 40 more later this year.

Satellite provider SES Americom Inc. has signed a deal with Rainbow DBS for the leasing of 16 transponders over the next 10 years to add additional channel capacity for Rainbow's Voom HDTV direct-broadcast satellite service.

The deal kicks off Oct. 1, with Rainbow DBS leasing Ku-band transponders on SES' AMC-6 satellite. Voom networks will be carried on that satellite, as well as on its own Rainbow 1 bird.

“NFL Sunday Ticket” subscribers will not have live access to Saturday’s rescheduled Tennessee Titans-Miami Dolphins National Football League game.

The out-of-market package, which retails for $209 on DirecTV Inc., offers unlimited coverage of regular-season NFL games. But a DirecTV spokeswoman said the league is not making the Tennessee-Miami game -- which will be played one day earlier than originally scheduled due to Hurricane Ivan, which could hit Florida this weekend -- available nationally.

Pegasus Communications Corp. just can’t win in court against DirecTV Inc.

A federal district court judge Thursday granted DirecTV’s motions to eliminate all remaining claims against it by Pegasus and Golden Sky Systems Inc. in the parties’ four-year-old lawsuit.

This follows an April 14 ruling in which a federal jury awarded DirecTV $51.5 million in damages from Pegasus regarding a lawsuit Pegasus filed against the direct-broadcast satellite giant claiming that DirecTV breached a joint marketing contract.