Europe’s two leading satellite operators - Luxembourg’s SES Global SA and France’s Eutelsat SA – have announced a 50-50 joint venture to share the costs for a new service which will broadcast television and radio programs to mobile phones in Europe. The companies said the initial investment will be about €130 million ($165.6 million). The video, radio and data services will be transmitted to mobile devices and vehicle receivers in the S-band. Operating in the S-band, the companies said, will allow initial delivery, for the first time, of mobile multimedia broadcast services directly on to terminals in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the U.K. It will also mark the start of a hybrid infrastructure over Europe, combining satellite and terrestrial networks to provide both universal coverage and indoor penetration for mobile TV services. More importantly, the development of mobile video services through a satellite-based hybrid network will provide content providers and operators with alternative or complementary solutions to terrestrial-based networks such as DVB-H or those that use Internet Protocol (IP) streams sent over an existing Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network. Alcatel Alenia Espace has won the contract to make the satellite that will be used for the service, which is scheduled to start operating in 2009.

Satellite radio, which counts millions of subscribers in the U.S., may finally make headway in Europe where the concept of satellite radio, and broadcasting radio signals to mobile devices, has been slow to gain acceptance due to language and cultural differences. But this hasn’t stopped pan-European ventures from trying. For example, ONDAS Media, a Madrid-based satellite media company, has recently expanded on its plans to broadcast its multi-lingual radio, music, video and data services directly to users on the fly (in their cars and on a variety of portable devices)  via its digital satellite transmission network. The company, which says it will provide digital entertainment (including more than 150 channels of proprietary and re-distributed music, sports, news, weather, traffic and special interest programming) in all the key European languages, claims it will reach 240 million vehicles and up to 600 million Europeans. This week ONDAS added to its stockpile of content, signing a partnership agreement with Club DAB Italia, Italy’s largest consortium of private national media and broadcasters, whose members include: Radio DeeJay, Radio Capital, m2o (Elemedia – Gruppo Espresso), RDS, Radio Maria, Radio Radicale, Radio Italia Solo Musica Italiana, Radio 24 - Il Sole 24 Ore (Gruppo Il Sole 24 Ore), Play Radio (Gruppo RCS and R101 (Gruppo Mondadori). The deal will ensure that channels aimed specifically at the Italian audience will be available, in addition to the highly popular existing programs for Club DAB members, when ONDAS launches its full subscription-based, advertising-free satellite radio, video and data service in 2009.