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.
The first launch of the new design Ariane 6 rocket is still four to five years away (planned first flight currently in 2020), but French government and industry officials said April 6th that the new rocket would beat arch-rival SpaceX on a price-per-kilo basis. The bold statement came from Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL), the newly-established […]
Various press reports suggest that Hutchison is close to signing a £3 billion capacity agreement as part of its plan to buy the O2 cellular network from Telefonica. The reports say that Sky will pay around £2 billion for 20 per cent of the capacity, and Virgin Media will pay to acquire a 10 percent […]
The sale of the struggling Sea Launch rocket launch enterprise has been blocked by minority shareholder Boeing. Boeing has started a legal action in California, seeking to obtain an injunction to halt the proposed sale, arguing that it wants payments contracted with a former partner of Sea Launch, the Energia rocket building business. Russia’s Roscosmos […]
On February 26th SES announced that its SES Platform Services (SPS) division would be acquiring Tel Aviv-based RR Media for about $242 million ($13.29 a share). The agreement is expected to close during the next few months, and without presuming too much both RR Media boss Avi Cohen and SPS CEO Wilfried Urner are planning […]
The huge MIPTV programming market in Cannes this coming week (April 4-7) will see three days of intense focus on 4K/UHD programming. Indeed, it is now clear that 2016 is likely to be the year when 4K does begin to break through to viewers around the world. The constant stream of positive news for 4K […]
Semiconductor and chipset developer Broadcom has started legal proceedings against Elon Musk’s rocket-company SpaceX, alleging that Musk’s business has violated NDA’s that existed between the two companies and SpaceX is further accused of “raiding its employees” in order to gain proprietary information. The action has been filed in Orange County Superior Court, and commenced on […]
The satellite sector has had a torrid time lately, not helped by a lack of confidence with investors over Intelsat’s position. Intelsat’s troubled status – as far as the stock market is concerned – has also affected the share positions at SES and Eutelsat. Equity analysts at Berenberg Bank, in a strong “BUY” note to […]
A French TV report says that the recent agreement between Vivendi and sports rights-holder beIN Sport, and which sees Canal Plus gaining access to some of beIN’s sports events, is going to extremely expensive for Canal Plus Group. Canal Plus is paying beIN more than €300 million annually for access to beIN’s rights, with Canal […]
Investment bankers Morgan Stanley is slashing its share price target for satellite operator Intelsat to just $1 (from its earlier target of $5) and a 64 per cent discount to the operator’s closing price on March 21st. Morgan Stanley is maintaining its “Underweight” rating to investors. Intelsat’s share price has tumbled some 72 per cent […]
Last week, Hong Kong-based AsiaSat unveiled lower revenues (down 4 per cent) for 2015 and said it expected more headwinds for 2016 as pricing pressures from competitors force down transponder and bandwidth rental prices. AsiaSat’s chairman, Ju Wei Min, in a statement, warned shareholders that the satellite operator was being squeezed and non-renewals of contracts […]
Channel 4 streaming minutes up 36% YoY
Netflix eyes Champions League
ACE celebrates antipiracy wins
Prime Video ads reaching 22m UK viewers monthly
Survey: 45% say TV has negatively impacted mental wellbeing
Thailand: 86% regularly streaming live content
Starlink targets India’s rural users
ProSiebenSat.1 Media adds new board members
StudioCanal announced new global TV division
Musk trademarks Starfall