Advanced Television

Inside Satellite

Chris Forrester

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.

Eutelsat’s Video built on “sound foundations”

A report to clients from investment bank Berenberg says that Eutelsat’s cash-flow stability remains undervalued and underappreciated. It has issued a “BUY” note to investors and gives a target price of €13,30 (Eutelsat’s current share price is about €9.25). Berenberg says Eutelsat’s core broadcast business – representing over 60 per cent of revenues – remained […]

May 27, 2020

Intelsat wins one, loses another

Intelsat, despite its bankruptcy process, has launched CellBackhaul over the US for 4G and 5G mobile network operators. This is good news for the company and users as it will help provide coverage to the rural and suburban regions of the US with little or no access to mobile broadband. Intelsat says it is providing […]

May 26, 2020

OneWeb bonus incentive scheme hits objection

OneWeb, despite its bankruptcy, wants to pay special incentive bonuses to its few remaining staff in order to hold onto their skills during and perhaps beyond the bankruptcy process. But the US Trustee is objecting strongly. In a filing to the Court the Trustee reminds Judge Robert Drain that OneWeb paid out “large bonuses…shortly before […]

May 22, 2020

OneWeb wants bonus payments for retained staff

OneWeb, now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has asked the court handling the process to permit incentive payments to retained staff of up to $8.8 million in order to hold onto those key workers during the bankruptcy process. OneWeb slashed its workforce from 531 to just 74 a few days ahead of the bankruptcy, and […]

May 21, 2020

NENT AGM approves 10% shares buy-back

Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) reported that at its AGM on May 19th, shareholders voted to approve a 10 per cent repurchase of the company’s shares. NENT operates video streaming services for its pan-Nordic customers on its Viaplay and Viafree as well as pay-TV platform Viasat. Its holdings include several free-to-air TV channels including TV3 Sweden, […]

May 20, 2020

OneWeb sale a real-life Game of Thrones

The bankruptcy and sell-off of mega-constellation OneWeb’s assets has become extremely interesting. Analysts at Quilty Analytics were on the case and suggesting that the auction now has 30 interested parties having signed NDAs, and that with Chinese, British, French and US interests involved it is turning into a real-life Game of Thrones. Indeed, Quilty says […]

May 19, 2020

SES optimistic over UHD

In essence, SES has always been enthusiastic about UHD. The format would represent an increased demand in bandwidth and would help provide valuable revenues over and above the somewhat shrinking – and digitally compressed – market that is Standard and High Definition transmissions. As UK country manager Mike Chandler and SES’ Market & Business Analyst […]

May 14, 2020

Nokia backs Project Loon

High Altitude Platform Services – or stratospheric balloons – are a key part of Google’s broadband-to-the-planet policy. Earlier this year a group of telecoms, aviation and technology companies, including Japan’s SoftBank and Alphabet Loon (the Google spin-off business looking after its balloon strategy) formed the HAPS Alliance. The concept is simple: Float a series of […]

May 13, 2020

SES: “Struggling to square the circle”

Comments from analysts at Berenberg Bank on satellite operator SES and its Q1 results are not positive. The bank says that while the overall numbers from SES were broadly in lone with expectations, and management has not altered its official guidance for the year, the bank thinks that there’s probably more bad news to come. […]

May 12, 2020

Dish: “Hard at work on wireless”

Erik Carlson, CEO at US DTH operator Dish Network, says the company is hard at work on its wireless initiatives. “The wireless team continues to make progress on a standalone 5G networks and we continue to pursue closing the Boost assets with T-Mobile,” he commented Carlson reported net income had fallen $73 million from a […]

May 11, 2020