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.

Bank: AST SpaceMobile valued at $53 per share

Analysts at Deutsche Bank have re-examined prospects for would-be global telco ‘space tower’ business AST SpaceMobile (AST) as being worth $53 (€50.51) per share. They recommend clients ‘BUY’ AST. “We currently expect AST will begin broad commercial service in northern Latitudes during 2026. We expect that by 2030, AST will generate nearly $3 billion from […]

December 18, 2024

Report: AST SpaceMobile has $519m war chest

Texas-based AST SpaceMobile wants to become the world’s ‘tower in space’ for its partner telcos. IT has the first five satellites in orbit, and a report from investment firm Hennessey Focus Fund says that steady cash-raising exercises during the past year has created a war chest of some $519 million (€494.9m) to spend on the […]

December 17, 2024

Starlink vs AST SpaceMobile: Tortoise or Hare?

SpaceX’s Starlink has managed to launch 349 of its Direct-To-Cellular (D2C) satellites in less than a year. While this is an admirable achievement the fleet is currently only able to manage simple Text/SMS messages to users in remote areas. The 349 launched craft represent some 90 per cent of the target constellation. The first Starlink […]

December 12, 2024

Analysts upgrade Eutelsat

By and large, the recent newsflow for Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat has been negative. But good news came on December 9th from market analysts at financial research specialist CFRA, which has upgraded Eutelsat from ‘Sell’ to ‘Hold’, and issued a price target of €3.50. Eutelsat’s share price closed on December 9th at €3.21, up on […]

December 10, 2024

Scotland loses a Spaceport

Orbex, a main contractor and backer of the Sutherland, Scotland spaceport is moving its activity to rival Scottish launch site at SaxaVord in the Shetland Isles. Orbex says it has suspended construction at Sutherland. SaxaVord said cryptically via X: “SaxaVord Spaceport today welcomes Orbex to its growing stable of clients after the spaceflight company decided […]

December 9, 2024

AT&T explains AST SpaceMobile strategy

AT&T is a US telco giant with 241 million subscribers. It wants to serve those subscriber when the user is in a ‘not spot’ and will use AST SpaceMobile to cover most of the US (Alaska might be a challenge) with AST’s satellite coverage. AT&T CEO John Stankey explained his forward-looking strategy and how AST […]

December 5, 2024

ESA introduces Fair Return structure

The European Space Agency (ESA) has, until now, attempted to return to Europe’s national governments contracts that were equal in value to their payments into ESA. ESA is introducing a new structure called ‘Fair Return’ which will allow a business (or consortium) that wins an ESA contract to choose how the contract’s value is spent. […]

December 4, 2024

New EU space boss explains strategy

The European Commission’s new head of its Defence & Space (DG DEFIX) portfolio has started work. Andrius Kubilius, the former prime minister of Lithuania, assumed office on December 1st. He will work under Ursula von der Leyen who is the continuing president of the Commission. Commissioner Kubilius held a staff meeting on Dec 1 and […]

December 3, 2024

Eutelsat suffers from negative bank report

Investment bank JP Morgan has lowered its Eutelsat share price target from €3 to just €2.80 (and ‘SELL/Underweight’ advice to clients). The move prompted a share sell-off and a rapid collapse and its already extremely low share price fell back from about €3 on Nov 28, to a low point of €2.84 on the 29th […]

December 2, 2024

MultiChoice, eMedia make peace

The long-running war of words and legal disputes between South Africa’s two giant independent broadcasters, MultiChoice Group and eMedia, has seemingly come to an end. All legal actions have been curtailed and the two entities have apparently opted for a private settlement between themselves. A note within eMedia’s half-yearly results (issued on November 25th) says […]

November 28, 2024