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.
Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom has had a terrible 18 months. In November 2015, its Amos-5 satellite failed despite being less than four years old. Then, in September last year, it lost its Amos-6 satellite in a catastrophic explosion atop a Falcon-9 rocket when a ground-test went badly wrong. That explosion didn’t just cost Spacecom dearly in […]
Every year the Satellite Show in Washington DC presents a panel made up of the CEOs of the very top satellite operators. SES has always been present… except this year. SES CEO Karim Michel Sabbagh usually sits alongside the heads of Intelsat, Eutelsat, Telesat and Inmarsat, but this year told trade mag Space Intel Report […]
London-based satellite operator Inmarsat is again being talked about as a take-over target. The Financial Times reported that Inmarsat could be a target for EchoStar. This time it is Charlie Ergen, founder of Dish Network and the EchoStar technology company who seems to have started the rumour mill. The FT reports that Ergen discussed possible […]
The past year has seen Netflix and main rival Amazon Prime launch their OTT services in India. Netflix launched on January 6th at 500 Rupees per month (about $7.50). Amazon Prime’s video service launched only a week ago, on December 14th, at 499 Rupees per month. And now the battles have started. Both operators are […]
Some British politicians are calling for 21st Century Fox’s bid for Sky to be blocked – and not just delayed, but completely thrown out. Former Labour party leader Ed Milliband and senior Liberal Democrat figure Vince Cable (a former UK business minister in the Cameron government) are saying that little has changed since a 2012 […]
One equity analyst has called the speedy Vivendi acquisition of Mediaset stock (at 20 per cent, and perhaps counting) represents “a rapid invasion” and asks whether Vivendi’s move will hold steady or advance further. Cheekily, Sarah Simon, equity analyst at Berenberg Bank, in a report (‘Bollore vs Berlusconi’), said “France has not invaded Italy since […]
The December 13 announcement that the BBC and ITV have finally launched BritBox, a SVoD service for ‘the best of British’ output, and which will eventually be available globally, although it will debut in the USA, is long overdue. As a UK licence fee payer, I can only hope that it will prove to be […]
When you have a billionaire backing a business, and there’s no publicly issued quarterly documentation to study, observers could be excused for assuming that all is well with a company like SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk. But the lack of launch activity since a September 1st explosion on one of its Falcon 9 rockets […]
One comment over this past weekend summed up the news, saying: “The return of the Fox”. Prior to Friday’s news that Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox had made an approach to buy the 61 per cent of Sky’s European assets it does not own, Sky’s share price value was in the toilet. Precisely a year […]
AMC Networks has done extremely well out of its compelling ratings hit The Walking Dead, and over the years has been helped hugely by a number of critical and commercial successes not least Mad Men, Breaking Bad and its Better Call Saul spin-off. But a report from analysts at MoffettNathanson Research suggests that the hits […]
Channel 4 streaming minutes up 36% YoY
CMA confirms Google strategic market status
ACE celebrates antipiracy wins
Prime Video ads reaching 22m UK viewers monthly
Survey: 45% say TV has negatively impacted mental wellbeing
DAZN scores US college sports deal with Big Ten, Fox Sports
Netflix set to bid for Champions League rights
Thailand: 86% regularly streaming live content
Starlink targets India’s rural users
The next phase of loyalty and rewards in streaming services