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.
Equity analysts from some of the London investment banks recently sat down with Sky’s senior management and some interesting views emerged, not least with the prospects from the upcoming auctions for Sky’s German football rights. One report, from Exane/BNP-Paribas, said that Sky’s staffers argued that a combination of upselling a wider portfolio of products (broadband, […]
Last week Eutelsat issued a major profit warning to the market and its share price fell 30 per cent. The news provoked major falls for Luxembourg-based SES (8.08 per cent), USD-based Intelsat (9.66 per cent), and similar tumbles for London-based Inmarsat (4.22 per cent) and AsiaSat. The fear of ‘cord-cutting’ and a reversal of demand […]
Eutelsat shares crashed 30.7 per cent on the Paris bourse following their profits warning. Eutelsat’s fall from grace was not helped by a slew of negative comments from equity analysts. Typical was Barclays, which said: “Such a heavy hit to forecasts, coming from across the applications, will knock confidence in the story,” which downgraded Eutelsat […]
London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications received a very useful $29 million (€25.4m) contract for backhaul connectivity from cellular operator EE on May 9th. Avanti’s shares rose 10 per cent in early trading on May 9th (to 101p), but finished the day at 93p after profit taking. The $29 million contract is a “multiyear” deal […]
Inmarsat’s share price crashed 12 per cent last week as investors exited the business. On May 6th its share price tumbled 50p to its lowest price of the year, and the biggest faller on the London FTSE market. Its price closed at 812.5p. The falls come following a disappointing set of quarterly results for the […]
TIME magazine has just unveiled its list of the Top 50 ‘Most Influential Gadgets’ of all time, and Sony’s venerable Trinitron television sets come out as No 2 in the list. Apple’s iPhone is No. 1. But the high position of Sony’s much-loved Trinitron range does make one wonder why they abandoned the name and […]
Equity analysts at investment bank Deutsche Bank are not impressed with the UK’s major commercial broadcaster’s latest results. Indeed, the woes at ITV might arguably be replicated at most of Europe’s free-to-view commercial channels. First up, Deutsche Bank admits that the current UK pre-occupation with an upcoming ‘In/Out’ referendum on its European membership might be […]
Class action writs are not unusual in the US, and it seems at least one group of TiVo shareholders feel aggrieved by the recent agreement for Rovi to acquire TiVo. Brodsky & Smith – class action veterans – say they are gathering potential evidence that the Board of Directors may have breached their fiduciary duties […]
Karim Michel Sabbagh, CEO at satellite operator SES, speaking to analysts following the company’s Q1 results, explained how the company was embarking on new and “unprecedented opportunities” by taking a 50.5 per cent controlling share in O3b (up from 49.1 per cent). The extra investment takes SES’ overall cash commitment into O3b to $323 million […]
SES will unveil its Q1 results on April 29th. Giles Thorne, equity analyst at investment bank Jefferies, suggests that 2015 was definitely a year to forget given the slew of financial headwinds suffered by the satellite operator. Thorne suggests that 2016 will start on a ‘solid footing’ but that growth for SES will be back-end […]
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