José Antonio Ríos, president and CEO of Galaxy Latin America, said that the start of its operations in Mexico, which was delayed due to lack of permits to download signals in this country from a foreign satellite, it is in addition to those already in Brazil and Venezuela. He indicated that in approximately 15 days, Galaxy Latin America will offer the service in Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica, and later, after a month, it will be transmitted in the Caribbean area and some time later in Chile, Guatemala, Argentina and Colombia.
Ernesto Vargas Guajardo, director of MVS Multivisión, a Mexican partner of the system, said during the press conference that it will be until mid-1997 when they have the capacity to offer other satellite services, in addition to audio and video.
The programming offered in principle by Direct TV for Mexican users, and that, like SKY, completes its menu with open television channels such as 13 and 7 of Televisión Azteca —channels that are already in Multivisión and Cablevisión—, has only 13 exclusive channels.
Ernesto Vargas pointed out that the advantage that SKY took with the adhesion of Medcom to the project in Mexico, based on the doubling of 7 to 14 transponders in satellites, will be surpassed with the launch of the new satellite that Direct TV will put into orbit in September 1997, the Galaxy VIII-I. The satellite, worth more than $250 million, will allow Direct TV to immediately offer up to 238 channels of DIGITAL video and CD-quality audio.
Kevin McGrath, chairman of the board of directors of Galaxy Latin America, said the VIII-I will be the second satellite to be launched in less than two years for Direct TV service in Latin America and the Caribbean and will provide Direct TV with 32 additional Ku-band transponders with 118 watts. to broadcast to Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The current satellite, Galaxy III-R, launched in December 1995, has 24 transponders and an option to continue using such transponders simultaneously was negotiated, subject to customary regulatory approvals. The use of both satellites will allow up to 22 transponders to transmit programming and entertainment services to Mexico. As a result, Direct TV will have at its disposal the transmission of 102 video channels, 43 pay per event and 27 reserved for the transmission of information and fun, in addition to 66 music channels. The Southern Cone, on the other hand, will receive the signal of the 32 transponders, 16 of them with programming mainly in Portuguese. The remaining transponders will reach the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean with main programming in Spanish. Additionally, Direct TV International operates this service in the United States and recently announced the start of its broadcasts in Japan.
