Washington, D.C. – April 8, 2010 – Holland & Knight is pleased to announce that partner Norm Leventhal and Sky Mexico successfully negotiated an agreement for Grupo Televisa´s subsidiary Corporacion de Radio y Television del Norte de Mexico, more commonly known as Sky Mexico. Sky Mexico is the leading direct-to-home satellite television provider in the region and it is a joint venture of Grupo Televisa, S.A.B. and The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (a U.S. provider of direct-to-home television services).
After negotiations with the world’s largest satellite provider, Intelsat, S.A., the new agreement now allows for Sky Mexico to lease 24 Ku-band transponders on Intelsat’s IS-21 satellite, which will be mainly used for signal reception and retransmission services in its service territory: Mexico, all of Central America and certain countries in the Caribbean.
Sky Mexico’s current satellite (IS-9) is expected to be out of service in three years, when IS-21 will become operational. The new agreement, spanning 15 years of the life of IS-16, will provide other important benefits to Sky Mexico, including the ability to provide additional channels of service to its customers and long-term guaranteed access to future satellite capacity.
Leventhal is a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and has extensive career experience in the broadcast, telecom/common carrier, wireless, domestic and international satellite communications, media production and distribution industries. He has represented Grupo Televisa and its subsidiaries in the U.S. for more than 35 years.
About Holland & Knight LLP: Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers in 17 U.S. offices as well as Abu Dhabi, Beijing and Mexico City. The firm is among the nation’s largest law firms, providing representation in litigation, business, real estate and governmental law. Interdisciplinary practice groups and industry-based teams provide clients with access to attorneys throughout the firm, regardless of location. www.hklaw.com
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