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 suffers protests from Med Nuçe closure

Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat was faced last week with continued protests from supporters of Kurdish Med Nuçe and Newroz TV channels.  Eutelsat has taken the channels down following objections. Med Nuçe ceased being carried on October 3rd while Newroz went dark on October 11th. The past few days have seen protestors in Paris hand out […]

October 24, 2016

Sky’s ‘Capital Markets Day’ examined

Last week Sky delivered a somewhat ‘light’ Q1 results statement that was much criticised by the market given that many of its usual headline numbers on DTH subscriber growth (or fall) and Churn data was missing. Sky said a week ago that Q1 trading was “slower” although price increases had helped drive revenues to a […]

October 21, 2016

SES 2016 numbers “at risk”

Satellite operator SES is not due to publish its Q3 trading update until October 28th, but for one analyst there are concerns for this year’s numbers and guidance. Giles Thorne, equity analyst at investment bank Jefferies, suggests in his note to clients on October 12th that the SES guidance for this year now looks “at […]

October 17, 2016

“Underwhelming” Sky vs “Winning” Sky

One set of results – albeit limited in detail – generated some extremely different conclusions and comments from equity analysts who closely watch Sky’s trio of European operations.  Sky issued its Q1 results on October 13th.. Berenberg Bank’s comments were headlined “Underwhelming” saying that the absence of most key performance indicators, and of EBIT, took […]

October 14, 2016

China wants to buy more satellite operators

In August a Luxembourg-based offshoot of Beijing-based Xinwei Group announced it had bought Spacecom of Israel (Space Communication Ltd), operators of the AMOS fleet of satellites for $285 million, an impressive – some might say courageous – premium of 41 per cent on the stock market valuation. The deal has been somewhat stymied by the […]

October 12, 2016

SpaceX close to cause of explosion

Rocket company SpaceX says it is homing on the probable cause of the September 1st explosion which destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and its valuable satellite cargo. At an October 9th speech at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington DC, SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell told delegates that it seemed there was no […]

October 11, 2016

All eyes on Sky

October 13th will see Sky unveil its first-quarter results. Analysts are looking to the results to show the progress – or lack of it – in particular at its Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland divisions. Back in July 2014, BSkyB announced it was going to buy its German and Italian sister pay-TV broadcasters. The deal […]

October 10, 2016

Vivendi: “Root Canal Surgery”

Equity analysts at Deutsche Bank have taken a fresh look at Vivendi in general and Canal Plus in particular, and in a thorough 94-page report says that they are “believers in the Canal+ turnaround” and that C+ is “central” to the Vivendi investment case. “Vivendi has been rationalized back to its core of music and […]

October 6, 2016

Valuing ‘Killer’ over ‘Filler’

Video entertainment is all-important in so many ways. Netflix has been around for almost 10 years but it is only in the last 2-3 years that it has gained international prominence. Amazon Prime is an even more recent phenomenon. ‘Content is still king’, but the metrics are now changing. A comprehensive 67-page study from the […]

October 5, 2016

Anxieties over Sky’s numbers

Hot on the heels of one report that suggested that Rupert Murdoch might be about to bring the trio of Sky pay-TV broadcasters into his 21st Century Fox operation comes a highly negative report on Sky including its European businesses. The report comes from equity analysts at Berenberg Bank. The bank has been negative on […]

October 4, 2016