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.
We recently ran a story that reported that Inmarsat’s new owners Viasat had cancelled certain frequencies which could have suggested the end of Inmarsat’s plans for its own low Earth orbiting constellation of satellites (Orchestra). ‘Not so’, implied Viasat, and explained: “Viasat chose to withdraw a pending application for FCC authority to access the US […]
Youth-focused publisher LBG Media has received a very positive “BUY” update from investment bank Berenberg following LBG’s trading update. Its full numbers will be released on September 20th, but LBG co-founder Arian Kalantari (aged 32) resigned from the company on July 26th. LBG is the London-listed published of what started out as ‘Ladbible’ and is […]
The Amazon-funded Project Kuiper mega-constellation of more than 3,000 low Earth orbiting broadband satellites, is promising download speeds of up to 400 Mb/s, significantly ahead of SpaceX’s Starlinks. Amazon has earmarked some $10 billion (€9.24bn) for the scheme. Most Starlink users report download speeds of around 100-150 Mb/s. There is no quoted certainty, but users […]
Vivendi is taking a minority stake (12 per cent, via Canal+) in troubled Viaplay and the move, says investment bank Jefferies, is true to form. Vivendi has a history of cannily deploying capital to promote its myriad interests. In this instance, for a c.€30 million investment (out of a Vivendi group liquidity pile of €2.8 […]
Adding 5.9 million new subscribers cannot be bad news. But analysts at MoffettNathanson (MN) in a comprehensive report on Netflix say that the new trading model which has emerged from Netflix this past day or so is “full of ambiguities”. “Over the past year or so, the narrative around Netflix has been centred on two […]
SpaceX has reportedly told some of its investors that it expected overall revenues this financial year to be in the region of $8 billion (€7.1bn) – double the revenues of 2022. However, this sum is less than some have forecast (around $11.6 billion). A report from The Information says: “The expectation for rapid growth helps […]
Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim recently had a video conference with Elon Musk about his SpaceX broadband service. The end result is a likely order to equip some of the country’s colleges and schools with a Starlink service. But first the system must be formally licensed. Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil said there are […]
Scientists from the UK’s University of Strathclyde say they have made significant progress in solving the challenges over mass production in transferring micrometer-scale semiconductor devices onto various receiving platforms. Moreover, the technique is said to result in unprecedented accuracy. The university team, led by research team leader Eleni Margariti, says it has developed a roller-based […]
Viasat, which only a few weeks ago was celebrating the acquisition of London-based Inmarsat, is suffering a massive crisis of shareholder confidence following news of its problems with its new ViaSat-3 Americas (VS-3A) satellite. Its shares opened on July 13th at $42.98 and closed on the day at $30.74, a net fall of 28.48 per […]
Investment bank Berenberg, in a report to clients on the likely financials from satellite operator SES due on August 3rd, is urging SES to announce a buyback of shares. SES is due to receive about $3 billion (less 18-19 per cent tax) at the end of the year as its compensation from the FCC for […]
Survey: Black viewers pay more attention to culturally relevant ads
Sinclair updates on Scripps merger proposal
Openreach ramps up digital upgrade
Starlink undercuts BT
Apple TV on Air France flights
De Ranitz appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of NPO
Sky News reinvents News at Ten with The Wrap
HBO Max, A24 renew US Pay-1 output and library deal
Zayo Europe expands network across Iberian Peninsula