Buying capacity to send programming via satellite will let BellSouth reach more customers than it now can with its Americast digital-TV service, a partnership with Walt Disney that also involves local phone companies GTE and SBC Communications' SNET and Ameritech units.
Americast provides programming that runs over fiber-optic lines BellSouth has installed in some neighborhoods. Digging up streets to put in these lines is costly and time-consuming. To receive satellite TV, subscribers need only mount a dish-like antenna outside. The service could continue to offer Americast content.
Atlanta-based BellSouth said Bob Frame, president of its BellSouth Entertainment division, will make a "strategic business Announcement" at a news conference today at 11:30 a.m. New York time. The conference will be available by teleconference and on the Internet.
In March, Business Week magazine reported that BellSouth would start offering satellite-television services to customers by leasing space on a Loral Space & Communications satellite. Bell Atlantic, the No. 2 U.S. local phone company, resells Hughes Electronics' DirecTV service, the No. 1 satellite-television company.
A BellSouth spokeswoman said today's announcement doesn't involve Loral; she declined to provide further details. GE Americom officials weren't immediately available.
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