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 CEO “prudent” on C-band windfall

Eutelsat’s CEO Rodolph Belmer told analysts on August 1st that he was staying the view to be “more prudent than most of estimates made at the moment” of the potential revenue gains from the reassignment of C-band spectrum over the US. Eutelsat has only around 5 per cent of the C-band market over the US […]

August 2, 2018

FCC to answer C-band consortium by “mid-2019”

A year from now and the FCC should have its answer for the consortium of Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat (and Intel) in their quest to sell some of their C-band satellite spectrum over the US. The consortium is offering an initial 100 MHz of bandwidth, but some members of the FCC are saying 200-300 MHz of […]

August 1, 2018

Telesat super-constellation decision close

Telesat has signed contracts with a consortium comprising Thales Alenia Space and Maxar Technologies/SS-L to carry out the preliminary design for the proposed ‘super constellation’ of Telesat Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. Telesat wants to operate an initial 120 LEO satellites, and have them in orbit by 2021. Ottawa-based Telesat, in its statement, said the […]

July 31, 2018

SES: Confidence returns

A 12.13 per cent share price rise for satellite operator SES in a single day (to €17.28 on July 27th) is the perfect verdict on a set of results that went down extremely well with the market.  It was also recognition that new CEO Steve Collar has put behind him the terrible 2017 period of […]

July 30, 2018

Maxar/SS-L to quit GEO business?

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), an old-established name in the satellite manufacturing industry and now owned by Canada-based Maxar Technology, is considering ceasing its geostationary satellite building business. A report by equity analysts at the Bank of Montreal cites the shortage of contracts for large commercial satellites at its SS/L facility at Palo Alto, California. The bank […]

July 26, 2018

ESA: “Beam-hopping a reality”

The European Space Agency (ESA) says its over-the-air beam-hopping concept, based on the DVB-S2X satellite broadcasting standard, works. The concept enables capacity to be redirected between a satellite’s transmitted beams and thus making satellite systems more flexible and efficient. ESA’s BEHOP (Beam Hopping Emulator for Satellite Systems), developed in conjunction with Germany’s Fraunhofer IIS, Eutelsat […]

July 23, 2018

Discovery backed by bank report

Discovery Communications had a good day on July 19th, rising an impressive 3.8 per cent in terms of its stock value, following a positive report on its prospects from investment bankers at Goldman Sachs. The bank’s analyst Drew Borst upgraded its advice to investors to “Conviction Buy” and a guide price of $33. However, not […]

July 20, 2018

Don’t give up on Netflix just yet

Headlines on July 17th seemed happy to twist the knife in on Netflix, and all because of a small bump on its – more usual – road of successive and steady successes. Analysis of the numbers throw up some staggering information: In the UK, for example, where its citizens allegedly have “the best TV in […]

July 18, 2018

Lockheed Martin to develop UK Spaceport

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin (LM) is to participate in the development of the UK’s first commercial spaceport at a seaside site near Melness, in Sutherland, Scotland. LM, making the announcement at the Farnborough Air Show, said that as part of the scheme it will provide “strategic support and guidance” to the overall site development. […]

July 17, 2018

FCC on C-band: “We need a framework”

Last week, the FCC said that the proposal from Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Intel for a restructuring of their C-band capacity over the US can proceed to the next stage. But reading the small print in the form of comments from the four Commissioners, who voted 4-0 in favour of the scheme, throws up some […]

July 16, 2018