probably a lot of factual errors in the various press releases over time. I bet Satmex-8 is probably Satmex-7 or Satmex-8 presser was meant to say it would be going to 116.8 to replace SM5 because I can't imagine repointing ****-loads of earth stations using SM5 from 116.8 to 114.9 for SM8. Much easier to just put SM8 at 116.8 so no ground station repointing necessary.
In my belief world, SM-8 is going to 116.8 and SM7 is waiting for financing since Satmex is still cash strapped and bondholders accepted SM-8 because someone sledgehammered them to reinforce the importance of replacing the bread and butter SM-5.
From what i know (some inside info) the plan all along was to have 2 more sats, Satmex 7 and Satmex 8 in the next couple of years, with Satmex 7, a 48 transponder satellite (24 C, 24 Ku) due to be launched next year, and SatMex 8 in the next 2 years, but it couldn't be done because they were not allowed to invest in those plans.
When Satmex was forced to put their fleet on the market, the most important bid was made by Charles Ergen, who asked for 2 new satellites since the current fleet of three its having problems, so from the info i have (some of it was not made public), Satmex was allowed to go as planned, with the launch of SatMex 7 next year and Satmex 8 still in 'the stove', this way they can convince possible bidders into buying.
On the other hand, México has some of the richest people on the planet, with the top being Carlos Slim, owner of Telmex, but he has been reluctant to invest on Satmex because the government has refused to give him the 'triple play' he already has on other countries, so he's opted to continue his relationship with Intelsat and their Amazonas satellites (object of heavy pirating) along with Movistar (whom by the way has permission to sell video and could incursionate in the market paired with Slim).
In the end, with all this mess, the ones who are getting the short end of the stick are the guys from Satmex, since the early 2000's when Televisa (via it's sibling ViSat) decided to 'backstab them' and cancelled their plans to use Satmex fleet to sell Sky (nowadays they have their 'own' sat), there were rumours back then that they wanted to buy everyting but when the new owners of Satmex moved pretty much everything to the northern state of Sonora, those plans were shutdown because Televisa wanted to have everything at their reach, and Televisa has been lobying with their employees-turned-members of the congress to make sure Slim is not allowed to enter the market as a video provider: when Dish was awarded a permit, Televisa cried foul and said they were doing something fishy because it was not possible to offer those low prices, in the end they decided to sell a package called VeTV at a low price, selling a lot of their OTA channels in that package, channels that they won't sell to Dish (breaching a law, but they won't be punished... ¬¬).
Cheers
M.
