The Malaysia aircraft catastrophe could result in a worsening of US-Russia relations, and severely damage upcoming satellite launch plans, as well as the manning and supply of the orbiting International Space Station. The British government, along with the Dutch, Australian and Malaysian authorities are amongst those calling for tougher financial and business sanctions against Russia, […]

Investment banker Berenberg has cut back on its expectations for German broadcasting giant Pro7Sat.1. In terms of the broadcaster’s share price the bank says its 12-month target is cut by €2 from €29.60 to €27.60. The reasons are the broadcaster’s “material underperformance” over the past year, although stressing that the bank’s view is some 5 […]

Time Warner might have won Round One of what may turn out to be a long-running boxing match, but Rupert Murdoch is quite likely to have a Plan B, and C, and D, in his corner ready for the next round. 21st Century Fox, in making a bid of $86 a share (in cash and […]

SpaceX’s giant Falcon-9 rocket successfully lifted six Orbcomm communications into low Earth orbit on July 14th. Orbcomm said that all six satellites were working well and sending out signals. The launch brings to an end some months of headache and launch delay anxieties caused by a handful of issues affecting the Falcon rocket (and weather […]

July 25th sees BSkyB unveil its Q4 and end-of-year results. Investment banker Nomura expects modest quarterly growth in net subscribers by about 68,000 (80,000 same period last year) and churn to hold steady at some 11 per cent and close to the previous quarter. Nomura’s media analyst Matthew Walker is forecasting lower broadband growth than […]

A Russian rocket lofted four satellites owned by Jersey-based O3b during the evening of July 10th. These four communications satellites will help provide satellite-based broadband to the ‘other 3 billion’ people who have either no Internet or inadequate service. The satellites will also provide connectivity to smaller, more isolated national networks as well as serving […]

Phil Falcone claims to be one of the richest men on the planet and co-founded and runs hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners. One of their key assets is Lightsquared, which wanted to build a multi-million dollar hybrid satellite and terrestrial 4G network across the US and beyond. Charlie Ergen is also not short of a […]

SES-backed O3b Networks is getting ready to launch its second batch of 4 satellites during Thursday evening (at 20.55 Paris time). The launch, on an Arianspace Soyuz ST-B rocket from French Guiana, means that O3b can offer a truly global broadband-by-satellite service to “the other 3 billion” of the planet’s inhabitants who are under-served or […]

Earlier this year, fast-expanding Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat won an auction for an orbital position controlled by Brazil (at 69.45 degrees West.  SES of Luxembourg and Madrid-based Hispasat also successfully bid for frequencies at the location, and a combined $67.6 million was paid to Brazil’s Anatel regulator. But Eutelsat’s bid immediately ran into problems in […]

London-based Inmarsat has a major customer in the shape of US-based Lightsquared. On July 2nd Inmasat confirmed what the market had suspected, that Ligtsquared was missing paying its quarterly bills. Virginia-based Lightsquared has a long-standing ‘Cooperation Agreement’ with Inmarsat. Lighsquared, founded by hedge fund player Phil Falcone, is developing a 4G-Satellite broadband communications network. It […]