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Capital,  Technology and the  US in an  'Open  Market'   171

           international operations, and to channel its resources into producing
           and distributing a range of new information-based services. 33
             Through subsidiary  Hughes  Communications,  with its  established
           telesatellite capabilities, and its historic leadership in promoting direct
           broadcast  technologies  in  the  United  States,  GM  has  established
           DirecTV,  North  America's  first  high-power  DBS  system.  As  noted
           above, its 150-channel capability has an advantage over many estab-
           lished  cable  distributors  in  that  it  can  already  provide  digitalized
           services  to  its  customers  (whereas  terrestrial  systems  will  have  this
           capability no sooner than the end of the 1990s). 34  This provides GM
           with  a platform from which  to provide the North American  market
           with  a  broad  range  of information-based  services  - including  those
           from  its  database  and  financial  services  subsidiaries  - as  well  as  a
           continental medium through which its manufacturing interests can be
           promoted.  35
             Recognizing  the  potential  transformative  influence  that  a  DBS
           system can have on consumer demand and cultural practices in relat-
           ively less developed regions, in 1993 News Corp. paid US $525 million
           for  a  controlling  interest  in  a  Hong  Kong-based,  low-power  DBS
           system called  Star TV.  This investment was  remarkable  in  that Star
           TV itself projected that its losses would reach US $200 million by 1995
           and that the first  year of profit would not come until at least  2001.
           Following an expensive upgrading of Star TV equipment- including
           the  launch of more powerful  satellites  and the application  of signal
           compression  technologies  - News  Corp.  officials  believe  that  the
           potential  of Star  TV  to  reach  fifty-five  Asian  and  Middle  Eastern
           countries  justifies  these  expenditures.  The  most  important  of these
           are India and the People's Republic of China (PRC)? 6
             In the PRC, while state officials have banned the direct reception of
           Star TV signals, variations in the local application of the ban and the
           impracticality of tracking down privately held  reception  dishes  have
           contributed  to  the  decision  to  develop  and  promote  multipurpose
           cable  systems  throughout  the  country. 37   As  of  1993,  an  estimated
           4.8 million Chinese households already received  Star TV broadcasts,
           while reception units are being sold to PRC citizens at a rate of over
           10,000 each month.  Having recognized  the  general  impracticality of
           controlling the  direct  reception  of DBS  transmissions,  state officials
           have negotiated with News Corp.  executives to use  selected  Star TV
           programing on these cable systems in order to exercise some degree of
           censorship. As Star TV transmission upgrades increase the number of
           channels  available  using  smaller  and  more  discrete  household
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