ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA

Satellite TV Venture Secures Program Sources: United States Satellite Broadcasting, the St. Paul, Minn.-based satellite TV venture owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, said it has deals in place to get programming from Time Warner and Viacom. USSB plans to launch a 20- to 40-channel direct-broadcast satellite system in March, 1994. Hubbard has said it expects the service will be available to 4 million homes within the first year and 50 million homes within five years. USSB’s chief rival, Hughes Communications’ DirecTv, plans to launch a 150-channel satellite service next year. USSB will redistribute Time Warner’s HBO and Cinemax, and Viacom’s Showtime, the Movie Channel, MTV, VH-1 and Flix cable networks. Federal legislation requires cable TV networks to make themselves available to competing services.