MUMBAI: The first to switch off and the last to do it, ESPN Star Sports and the Star Network respectively, ended their blackout of Hinduja group MSO INCableNet in Mumbai tonight.
The Star network and ESS reached an in-principle agreement with INCableNet that resolves their payments dispute and led to the MSO being switched back on. It was over "pending dues" that at one time had all four major pay platforms - Zee-Turner, Star, Sony-Discovery One Alliance and ESS - off Mumbai‘s dominant MSO.

The first to switch INCableNet back on early last week was the One Alliance bouquet, after shutting it down in late April. Zee Turner followed suit on 22 May (last Thursday).

With all the pay networks back on the Hinduja MSO, broadcasters as well as INCableNet can focus their energies on the fast approaching CAS rollout deadline of 14 July and how they propose to confront it.

Satellite launcher Arianespace is readying for its seventh launch of the year.

The Intelsat 905 satellite to be carried aboard an Ariane 4, will be launched on 5 June from the company‘s launch pad in French Guiana. The six launches undertaken in 2002 by Arianespace orbited seven primary satellites and two auxiliary payloads with a combined total of over 27,365 kg, an official release says.

Satellites also have arrived for two future Ariane 5 missions - the Stellat 5 spacecraft for Flight 153 in late June, and the MSG-1 platform for Flight 155 in the second half of the year, the release adds. Stellat 5 is based on the Alcatel Space Industries Spacebus 3000 B3 platform and will have a launch mass of 4,100 kg. The satellite will be used by a joint-venture company called Stellat, which brings together France Telecom (with a 70 per cent share) with Europe*Star (30 per cent). Positioned at 5 deg. West longitude, Stellat 5 will support two-way broadband Internet access across much of Europe, and offer a connectivity matrix between Europe, the east coasts of North and South America, Africa, the Middle East and significant swaths of near Asia.

On the other hand, the second-generation Meteosat metrological satellite, which is a spin-stabilized MSG-1 spacecraft, will provide multi-spectral imagery of the Earth‘s surface and cloud systems at double the rate of first-generation Meteosat platforms, and will operate 12 spectral channels instead of three. MSG-1 was developed under European Space Agency responsibility and will be operated by Europe‘s Eumetsat organization, according to Arianespace.