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.

Gulf viewers deprived by diplomatic crisis

What happens if you are an innocent viewer based in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and trying to watch a football game carried by beIN Sports, or trying to catch a news report from Al Jazeera?  The recent diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and arch-rival Qatar is placing extreme strains on broadcasting […]

June 8, 2017

Satellite insurers ‘save’ $786m of risk

Last Thursday’s launch of two giant satellites by an Arianespace rocket was a success in more ways than one. The launch saw a flawless deployment of two important satellites, including Eutelsat 172B and the massive ViaSat-2 craft for broadband-by-satellite operator ViaSat of Carlsberg, California, and the heaviest-ever satellite (at 6,418 kgs) built by Boeing. The […]

June 6, 2017

Russia’s Proton returns to work after a year

International Launch Services (ILS), the commercial arm of Russia’s Proton rocket system, is to launch the much-delayed EchoStar XXI satellite next week on June 8th (at 06.45 Moscow time) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Echostar XXI has been waiting for the best part of a year for launch, and was needed on station – […]

June 1, 2017

Intelsat crunch time

Investors and bond-holders in Intelsat have less than two days left, until midnight (New York-time) May 31st, to decide whether to accept the revised terms on offer from Japanese media conglomerate SoftBank in its proposed merger between Jersey-based OneWeb and Intelsat. The deadline was established back on May 17th, and was the fourth time that […]

May 30, 2017

Arianespace builds for dual launch

The spaceport at French Guiana is extremely busy catching up on the ‘lost’ 40 days of the May strike throughout the region with preparation for an important dual payload of satellites due for launch next month. An Ariane 5, dubbed Flight VA238, is taking shape for a scheduled June 28th lift-off with a dual-satellite payload: […]

May 24, 2017

3D printing for satellite parts becoming routine

Technicians at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, have now sent into space 79 metal parts inside satellites for the likes of Telkom 3S and the recent launch of Koreasat-7. The parts have been made by the ‘additive manufacturing’ 3D-based printing technique. Additionally, Thales has made some 350 polymer tube supports used in satellites. They […]

May 17, 2017

Intelsat, OneWeb merger close to collapse

The proposed merger between satellite giant Intelsat and Jersey-based OneWeb is “close to being scrapped” reports Bloomberg, with Intelsat’s bond-holders holding out for a higher price than that on offer from Japan’s SoftBank, which was looking to facilitate the scheme. Intelsat said May 11th that it had extended the deadline for bond-holders to accept the […]

May 12, 2017

Liberty Global downgrades won’t help Sky

John Malone-backed media conglomerate Liberty Global announced its Q1 revenues of $3.52 billion (€3.21bn), down 17.8 per cent (y-o-y). Its European-based Operating Income was also down 18 per cent (to $431 million). The results were blamed on a “soft start” to the year by CEO Mike Fries. “While most markets reported results consistent with our […]

May 8, 2017By Chris Forrester

SpaceX racing to space for broadband domination

Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company has told a powerful Senate hearing in Washington DC on May 3rd that it intends having its super-constellation of orbiting satellites operating and supplying initial high-speed broadband within two years. SpaceX is planning a massive fleet of 4425 satellites to girdle the planet. SpaceX’s VP/government affairs, Patricia Cooper, told senators […]

May 4, 2017

Indian satellite scandals probed

India’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is demanding action over alleged malpractice by the country’s Department of Space (DoS) in how transponder satellite capacity was awarded to private direct-to-home broadcasters. The PAC state that decisions going back more than 10 years need to be fully investigated. The 22-member PAC is made up of Indian parliamentarians in […]

May 3, 2017