Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
SpaceX is due to carry out the launch of a military satellites for the US Space Force on June 30th. The launch is pretty routine for SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket, but despite having carried out 86 similar launches (and which included returning 47 to either solid ground or one of Elon Musk’s floating […]
Charlie Ergen’s move into cellular telephony is proving to be costly. A $1 billion debt offering of Senior Notes by Dish Network has been priced at 7.35 per cent. The debt is due for repayment by 2028. As a comparison last week SES offered a €400 million Eurobond, also due for repayment in 2028, and […]
The US Trustee, which is supposed to protect smaller shareholders and investors, has determined that an equity committee of common shareholders with Intelsat stock was not needed at this time but that it reserved the right to revisit the issue in the future as the bankruptcy continues. Seventy-three shareholders had combined (with some 2.3 million […]
Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 has acquired the free-to-air domestic TV broadcast rights package of the (DFL) Bundesliga football games for the 2021-2025 seasons. Sky Deutschland won five of the seven pay-TV packages. Perhaps coincidentally, private equity giant KKR increased its stake in ProSiebenSat.1 and now holds 6.61 per cent. Earlier KKR acquired a 5.21 percent stake as […]
On June 22nd, Mediawan announced it was acquiring Lagardere Studios. The news prompted a spectacular 41 per cent rise in Mediawan’s shares. Investment bank Berenberg has looked closely at Mediawan and reports on its founders (Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse) who used the occasion to announce the creation of the Mediawan Alliance, which […]
Eutelsat’s CEO Rodolphe Belmer, speaking at the Exane/BNPP-organised CEO Conference in Paris, painted a cautiously optimistic view for the medium-term outlook for the satellite operator. Belmer said he continues to expect its Video Broadcast division (62 per cent of group FY20e revenues) revenues to be broadly stable and to benefit from lower replacement capex. Once […]
A Eutelsat board meeting on June 18th voted to cancel 2,229,640 shares, representing 0.96 per cent of the share capital, in accordance with the authorisation granted by the 14th and 15th resolutions of the Combined General Shareholders’ Meeting of November 7th 2019. Of the 2,229,640 shares cancelled, 2,124,572 shares were acquired under the share buyback […]
The announcement that Ferdinand Kayser (CEO, SES Video division) and John Purvis (Head of Legal/General Counsel) are stepping down from their senior roles also brings to an end another ‘Luxembourg connection’ for SES. Chairman of the Board Romain Bausch is a Luxembourger, of course, as are some of the other Board members. But Kayser’s departure […]
Despite being in bankruptcy protection, Intelsat’s executives are seeking to continue receiving impressive salaries and compensation packages. Intelsat is continuing to operate its business as a ‘debtor in possession’. On June 30th, the bankruptcy court will consider a motion to allow Intelsat to continue paying senior staff under its Key Executive Incentive Plan (KEIP) which […]
There’s a new rocket launch company making headlines. Rocket Lab, founded in 2006 and originally based in Auckland, New Zealand (where it still makes its rockets), has SpaceX’s frequency and some of its client list in its sights. Rocket Lab is headed by c0-founder Peter Beck, who currently serves as the company’s CEO and CTO. […]
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