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.
It was time-saving of at least a day in the pre-launch campaign that seemed to have been the reason why Spacecom’s AMOS-6 satellite was sitting on top of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when a conflagration occurred on September 1. A full and exhaustive study is taking place into the explosion at SpaceX, supervised by […]
A report from Macquarie investment bank has suggested that the time was now right for a deal which would see 21st Century Fox buy the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already control. “That moment has come, with Sky shares down 32 per cent [this year to date] in US$ terms,” Macquarie’s Guy […]
Turkey says it wants to become one of the top-10 global satellite operators, and wants to have ten satellites in orbit by 2023. Turkey’s Transportation, Maritime and Communication Minister Ahmet Arslan said Türksat is already one of the world’s top 20 satellite operators and their aim is to become one of the world’s top-10 countries […]
Russia’s S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corp (RSC Energia) and the US aerospace giant Boeing reached an agreement to solve their dispute over the Sea Launch rocket project, Energia’s General Director Vladimir Solntsev has said. The Izvestia report on the settlement has not yet been confirmed by US sources. The dispute goes back many years […]
An arbitration action is taking place in London between a Dubai-based businessman, Ajay Sethi, and Kenya’s KBC public broadcaster over a failed joint-venture designed to launch a TV channel, Metro TV, into the country. The action is claiming penalties of $484 million. The allegations are serious enough for locals to say that if KBC loses […]
SpaceX completed another ‘double’ success in the early hours of August 14th, launching a satellite and then landing the rocket’s 1st stage. This brought the total of SpaceX launches (for commercial satellites operators and NASA cargo trips) to the International Space Station to eight since January 1st. By comparison, Arianespace has launched just 3 of […]
There are many competent suppliers of In Flight Entertainment systems for airlines. It is also clear that travellers love the broadband connectivity increasingly on offer from the likes of Gogo, Global Eagle Entertainment or Panasonic Avionics. There’s also US-based ViaSat and its Exede airline connectivity service. ViaSat/Exede, as of June 30th, had 509 aircraft equipped […]
Satellites, once launched, tend not to come back to Earth. Geostationary communications satellites, once they have reached their end-of-life are sent to a ‘graveyard’ orbit a few hundred kilometres above their normal orbits. Other lower-orbiting satellites usually descend to Earth in a safe fireball that burns them up. But back in 1992 a European Space […]
That’s the problem when a free-to-air network spends $1.23 billion on TV rights for the Olympic Games, they have to earn that cash back – and make a profit. The 2016 Rio opening ceremony, at 4.5 hours, seemed to some commentators on social media that NBC was attempting to break broadcasting records by airing more […]
Avanti Communications saw a dramatic jump in its share price on August 4th. At the start of the day the well-depressed shares were priced at 22p, but as the day progressed at one point they had almost doubled in value (to 39p) helped by a news report on the FT’s Alphaville news blog. At the […]
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