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SBCA'S SPRING SkyFORUM PANEL TO ADDRESS NEW SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES, INVESTOR INTEREST AND LOCAL NETWORK DISTRIBUTION -- Satellite Industry Leaders and Wall Street Analysts to Address Industry's Future - ALEXANDRIA, VA, March 15, 2000 - The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) and SkyTRENDS partner Media Business Corp. (MBC), today announced the moderators and panelists for the 13th semi-annual SkyFORUM satellite/financial symposium. The one-day conference, being held on March 28 at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, will feature three panel sessions interspersed around interviews with industry executives. The panels will discuss emerging interactive satellite technologies, investor assessments of the industry and the opportunities and challenges of delivering network services to satellite households. The Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) industry recognizes that the future rests beyond programming, and providing additional services and value is the only way to increase subscriber numbers. SkyFORUM's new technologies panel entitled "Interactive Media: Supply and Demand" will address the status of two-way data transmission via satellite, how it measures up to the competition, and its important role in the continued growth of the satellite industry. The morning panel will begin promptly at 10:05 a.m. and will feature discussion among Stacy Jolna, vice president of programming and network relations, TiVo; Jan Steenkamp, CEO, Open TV; Allan Thygesen, senior vice president of programming and advertising, Wink; and Charlie Tritschler, vice president of marketing, Liberate Technologies. The Wall Street panel, entitled "Straight from the Street" will provide an overall view of the publicly traded DTH companies by some of the industry's leading analysts, including reviews and predictions about new business strategies and technology. Panelists include: Bob Berzins, senior vice president, Lehman Brothers; Tom Eagan, first vice president, Paine Webber; Vijay Jayant, managing director, Bear Stearns; Rob Kaimowitz, managing director, ING Barings; Marc Nabi, vice president, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; and Tom Watts, managing director, Merrill Lynch. The "Straight from the Street" panel runs between 11:20 a.m. and 12:20 p.m., and will be moderated by Evie Haskell, managing director, SkyTRENDS. SkyFORUM's final panel will address the issue of network signal reception options for DTH consumers, and is entitled "The Missing Link: Local Signals in the DTH Universe." In light of the recent signing of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA) into law, discussion will focus on DBS' transmission of local network programming to consumers, off-air signal reception, and the opportunities and challenges that are intrinsic to that delivery. The panel will be moderated by Paige Albiniak, assistant editor, Broadcasting and Cable, and will feature discussion among: Rob Golden, vice president of new ventures, DIRECTV; John Hutchinson, executive vice president and COO, Local TV on Satellite; Buddy Mills, president, Channel Master; Bob Phillips, president and CEO, NRTC; and Chris Rohrs, president, Television Bureau of Advertising. "The Missing Link: Local Signals in the DTH Universe" panel runs from 2:05 p.m. to 3:05 p.m. The March 28 event will feature one-on-one interviews with industry leaders including Eddy Hartenstein, corporate senior executive vice president, Hughes Consumer Sector and Mark Pagon, president, chairman and CEO, Pegasus Communications Corp. The morning speaker will be Peter Boylan, president and COO, TV Guide, Inc. In addition, SBCA President Chuck Hewitt will lead off SkyFORUM with a "State of the Industry" address, and Bruce Leichtman will be providing information about The Yankee Group's new technology research. The program will run until 4:00 p.m. in the Marriott Marquis Broadway Ballroom on the 6th floor. For more information or to register for SkyFORUM, please visit www.sbca.com or contact Rachel Zink, SBCA, at 703-549-6990, ext. 363, or rzink@satellite.org. Media interested in receiving complimentary press credentials should contact James Ashurst, SBCA, 703-739-8351, or jashurst@satellite.org or Richard Edmonds at Torrance/PTNY at 212-521-5212. SkyTRENDS is the market research, data collection and reporting program for the home satellite industry. This program is a venture between Media Business Corp. and the SBCA. SkyFORUM was developed to create a higher awareness of the satellite industry among the financial and investment communities, and the media. The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association of America (SBCA) is the national trade organization representing all segments of the satellite industry. It is committed to expanding the utilization of satellite technology for the broadcast delivery of video, data and voice services. The SBCA is composed of DBS and other satellite service providers, programmers, equipment manufacturers, distributors, retailers, encryption vendors, and national and regional distribution companies. The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association of America (SBCA) is the national trade organization representing all segments of the satellite industry. It is committed to expanding the utilization of satellite technology for the broadcast delivery of video, data and voice services. The SBCA is composed of DBS and other satellite service providers, programmers, equipment manufacturers, distributors, retailers, encryption vendors, and national and regional distribution companies. |
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