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.
James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox’s deputy COO, says recent disposals have freed up cash for reinvesting in the company’s core businesses, including sports channels. However, speaking at Morgan Stanley’s TMT conference in New York, he also said that 21st Century Fox would continue to look for potential acquisitions provided the price was right. Questioned as […]
All satellite capacity in India has to be organised via the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which has a monopoly on supplying transponders, and wholesaling the supply of capacity from non-ISRO satellites. Last year TataSky said it would sue ISRO for not making capacity available. There has been a four-year wait for capacity, not all […]
Getting a satellite into space is hard – and worrying – work for any broadcaster or operator. When that satellite also has an essential and massive antenna on board, it takes the headache to a new level. And when there’s past evidence that similar giant antennas can prove to be stubborn and not deploy then […]
The giant Airbus Group (which used to be known as EADS) has within it a division that manufactures the giant Ariane 5 rockets as part of its Astrium operation which also builds communications satellites used by many of the world’s broadcasters. Astrium received an outline contract last year to build 18 higher-capacity Ariane rockets for […]
The past week has seen London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications have something of a roller-coaster in terms of its share price, and market reception. Last week saw Avanti announce a contract win from mobile telco giant Vodafone, which immediately propelled Avanti’s share price from the previous week’s miserable £1.95 (€2.29) to a much healthier […]
Last Friday’s results from Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES have now been digested by the market, and one investment bank didn’t much care for what they saw. Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, welcomed SES’s guidance that this year should drive revenues up 6-7 per cent but then said that they were expecting more! The […]
Luxembourg-base SES is already carrying more than 6230 satellite channels, some 18 per cent of the world’s total channels (35,000), and this year – if its forecasts are reasonably accurate – the operator will overtake Intelsat as the world’s largest satellite business measured by revenues. The reason is that Intelsat is very dependent on so-called […]
Let’s be clear. SES CEO Romain Bausch didn’t say “roll on 2015” as he delivered the satellite operator’s 2013 end of year numbers. But 2014 should see fewer satellite delays, a reinforced position in fast-developing markets, a new income stream from its O3b data and broadband constellation, and recent investment that starts to pay back. […]
UK cable giant Virgin Media has again incurred the wrath of London roads regulator Transport for London (TfL) by digging up 5 lanes of the hugely busy A316 arterial road into London ahead of the morning rush-hour. Virgin Media had permission to dig up one lane at a time and to carry out the works […]
The past few weeks have not been good for British pay-TV giant BSkyB. This week has seen BSkyB lose a Court battle with rival Virgin Media, and the growing success of arch-rival BT Sport is worrying for Sky. Fighting back against the threat posed by BT Sport has seen Sky start to secure a large […]
Survey: 45% say TV has negatively impacted mental wellbeing
Thailand: 86% regularly streaming live content
Premier Sports readies for 1,000th URC broadcast
Channel 4 to carry UKTV’s U streaming service
ITVX Premium now on Prime Video UK
Research: US streaming audiences riding nostalgia wave
Party Games coming to Netflix
RTVE launching 2Cat Catalan-language channel
Survey: Third of consumers considering switching ISPs
Study: In-game ads drive action, but measurement standards lag