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 joke in the industry – totally unfairly – is that Greece’s national telco OTE started looking for a buyer of HellasSat just before the foundation stones were laid on the Athens Acropolis. However, OTE is now beginning to get some traction from sales efforts on other parts of its non-local portfolio of assets. Globul, […]
Last week BT committed to pay £738 million for a total of 114 English Premier League (EPL) football matches, to be screened over a 3 year period. Now the back-room number-crunchers have looked closely at the deal, and one investment banker says BT is most unlikely to make money from the deal. Bankers at Espirito […]
Measat says it is on schedule to launch three new satellites over the next two years. Measat’s SVP/space systems development Ali R Ebadi said its Africasat-1a craft was scheduled for launch in February next year, followed by Measat-3b at the end-2013 and Measat3C in 2014. “We continuously invest in satellite capacity to support the rapidly […]
A very long-running squabble between Eutelsat and Iran, which also involves Arabsat and the state of Qatar, is getting ever-more complex and has no sign of being resolved. At stake is a brand-new satellite now being built for Eutelsat and Qatar, and worth around $300 million and due for launch next year. The problem is […]
The verdicts are in, the stock market pundits have exercised their confidence – or otherwise – and the sports pages have had their say on whether BSkyB did the right thing by spending a spectacular £200 million a year more on primetime English Premier League action for the three upcoming soccer season from 2013. Also […]
Baseball star Yogi Berra summed up the situation perfectly, saying it’s déjà vu all over again, at least as far as BSkyB, and the other finalists are concerned in the English Premier League football bidding war. First, BSkyB has paid £100 million more, per season, than the highest-expected estimates. But Sky knows what it’s doing. […]
It seems that EchoStar-17, a satellite built by Space Systems/Loral, has been cleared for launch by Arianespace on July 5. The satellite was held back while awaiting a report on the problems that occurred with a Sea Launch/Energia rocket launch on May 31st ago, and which resulted in the Intelsat – 19 satellite not being […]
The New York Times reported June 8 that Comcast – still digesting its giant purchase of NBC – is now looking for another meal, and has BSkyB in its sights. Despite a very firm denial from Comcast’s CFO Michael Angelakis, who stated that the report was total speculation and inaccurate, the bid rumour sent BSkyB’s […]
There’s another suggestion floating around from DTH satellite giant DirecTV that a merger with rival Dish Network is a logical next step for the broadcasting pair. DirecTV’s CEO Mike White, speaking at a media conference in New York June 1st, said that there’s a lot to be said for a merger. He stated: “There is […]
Phil Kent, Turner Broadcasting’s CEO, speaking at Nomura Bank’s Media & Telecom Summit in New York, has admitted to analysts that he was “very unhappy” at CNN’s recent ratings slump. CNN’s primetime numbers hit a 20-year ‘low’ in May. Kent said CNN had plans in hand to improve the quality of its broadcasts and boost […]
Ofcom: “BBC should play to its strengths”
Australia: Content quota for streamers becomes law
Brazil: Anti-piracy action takes down 535 websites
Paramount+ partners with Arsenal
BBC Sport agrees La Liga digital clips deal
Sky Sports, Slawn, McCann London collaborate on limited-edition football shirt
Magic Light creates The Gruffalo & Friends idents for BBC
ESA secures €22bn in funding
Report: Disabled people underrepresented in broadcasting jobs
Channel 4 reports record Hollyoaks viewership