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.
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 – […]
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 […]
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: […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Global satellite operator Intelsat’s planned merger with Jersey-based OneWeb has suffered its first hiccup. Intelsat’s bondholders are not signing up to the proposed financial restructuring engineered by Japan’s media giant SoftBank and Intelsat has had to extend the acceptance period from its April 20th deadline to May 10th. To date, barely 1 per cent of […]
Elon Musk is already wealthy. Forbes, in its annual ‘rich list’, puts the co-founder of PayPal and the brains behind the Tesla electric car, the Solar City scheme, and ‘rocket-to-Mars’ SpaceX project as having a net worth of some $14.8 billion. This doesn’t wholly include SpaceX, which is currently privately held. However, the rumour mill […]
Netflix acquires Affleck’s InterPositive
Movistar Plus adds mandatory ads when accessing TV channels 
SES adds new MEO capacity
UK Lords warn of AI impact on creative industries
Eutelsat completes refinancing plan
MVP launches MVPW; signs ESPN deal
Live streaming latency vs on-demand infrastructure reliability
Eurovision Sport provides live subtitling for Paralympic Winter Games
ESPN, Disney, Pixar, NHL team for Inside Out Classic alt-cast
£30m government funding for UK satellite comms