Chinese billionaire Wang Jing – worth $6.1 billion according to Forbes’ annual list – wants to start building a low-cost satellite system. Wang, aged 40, is working with Tsinghua University, and plans to have a 5-craft constellation in space within 10 years. Wang is already backing the building of a new $40 billion canal across Nicaragua […]
There is considerable commercial rivalry between the France-based Arianespace rocket system, and the US-based Space Exploration (SpaceX) rocket. France’s space minister Genevieve Fioraso has criticised SpaceX, saying it is all but “dumping” their rockets onto the commercial market. The Minister’s rationale for her arguments is that SpaceX is being unfairly helped by the USA’s space […]
Investment bankers Mediatech Capital Partners (MCP) believe that Netflix is now firmly a potential acquisition target. Porter Bibb, MCP’s managing partner, speaking on Bloomberg TV, told viewers that Netflix’s 50 million-plus subscribers – and growing – might put financial pressures on Reed Hastings, Netflix’s founder. “Netflix [share price fell] but it is still very, very […]
BSkyB’s results were better than most analysts expected, but this didn’t make life any easier for Sarah Simon, a senior analyst at Berenberg Bank, who continued her negative advice to clients, and marking down the bank’s price target for BSkyB shares from 800p to 780p. October 16th saw BSkyB’s share price fell back a few […]
I seriously doubt any media company has ever had as many namechecks as Netflix over this last couple of years. We are as guilty as any, but then that’s what happens if a business is a game-changer; the company appears in thousands of ‘wow what a success’ stories and just as many ‘oh my, what […]
On the one hand everything for BSkyB is looking pretty rosy. Its acquisition of its counterparts in German and Italy is shaping up well, and James Murdoch’s highly positive comments at MIPCOM on October 13th should have helped this rosy glow. However, a report from Berenberg Bank stays negative, and the bank is advising investors […]
Arabsat’s current procurement and RFPs include options for all-electric satellites, thereby saving weight and thus significantly trimming launch costs. Khalid Balkheyour, CEO at Arabsat, says that all options are open for discussion on the RFPs now being examined. “We also gave [the potential suppliers] the option of quoting for one large satellite or two smaller […]
The general consensus in the US seems to be that the proposed merger between DBS pay-TV operator and giant telco AT&T will get Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. The FCC has now closed its period for the general public and interested parties to make their comments heard. The FCC will reply to those comments on […]
BBC Monitoring is reporting that Ukrainian channel Inter TV is having its news bulletins and political talk shows “systematically jammed”. A correspondent for the channel said that the State Centre for Radio Frequencies had confirmed that the channel’s signal was being jammed at the stage of transmission to the satellite using a “vehicle with a […]
Israel’s AMOS satellite is suffering jamming. Ukraine’s Inter TV is reported to have had some of its shows interrupted. BBC Monitoring is reporting that deliberate interference began on September 28th. The head of the Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), Markiyan Lubkivskyy, said; “In particular, [the signal] is being blocked by means of 500-watt radio waves targeting […]