St.GIGA

St.GIGA (セント・ギガ Sento.GIGA) is the name of the now-defunct satellite radio company that was heavily involved in the Satellaview, an add-on for the Super Famicom.

Prior to their involvement with Nintendo, St.GIGA was known for its Satellite Radio station playing new-age and ambient music to a cult fanbase. In 1993, Nintendo bought some stock in their company. Nintendo released the Satellaview in April 1995, and St.GIGA dropped much of its original content in order to maintain the service, providing downloads for users and more videogame and pop-culture oriented audio broadcasts.

In 1998, Nintendo and St.GIGA's relationship began dissolving after the latter refused to go forward with a debt-management plan orchestrated by Nintendo, and had failed to apply for a government digital satellite broadcasting license. Because of this, Nintendo ceased production of new content for the Satellaview in March 1999, though St.GIGA kept the service up for two more years with reruns of older games. The company ultimately pulled the plug on the Satellaview on June 30, 2000. None of St.GIGA's work before or afterward was tied to video games.

St.GIGA eventually went out of business, and its assets have gone through several different hands. Recent attempts to re-broadcast their old content have been revoked by the Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs.