The City of London was in two minds about the BT Sport Champions League deal when markets opened for the first time after the deal. BT was marked down and so was BSkyB, with the established broadcaster losing a sizeable nine per cent of its value. So, on balance, the market thought it was a […]

The news that BT Sport had bid almost one billion pounds for a three-year deal to cover the Champions League and Europa League football, and creating yet another record for European pay-TV soccer coverage, shocked the industry. In the process, BT Sport has knocked BSkyB out of the game. By any measure this is a […]

The USA’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARP) is planning to attempt to rescue parts from retired orbiting satellites as part of its Project Phoenix.  The DARPA scheme calls for a new satellite to be built with a remote-control arm in order to salvage useful components. DARPA has already identified about 140 satellites and is […]

Satellite operator SES unveils its latest Q3 numbers on November 8th, and there are worries amongst the investment community as to currently how profitable SES is. The problem is that if its Q3 numbers grow by about four per cent , a perfectly healthy number when compared with some of its rivals. However, if SES […]

Intelsat’s president/CEO Dave McGlade told analysts that as well as suffering a downturn in government and military business because of the USA’s tough “sequestration” expenditure rules (revenues down 10 per cent), it was also seeing growing bed debt problems.  Increased competition from other satellite operators was also affecting business generally but especially in contracts from […]

Korea Telecom has sold two valuable satellites for a bargain price of $4.24 million, according to a statement made in South Korea’s parliament. The sales, to Europe*Star and to Hong Kong-based Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) could also be illegal, claimed opposition parliamentarians.  The two satellites cost around $400 million to construct. The two satellites (Mugungwha […]

Jean-Marie Messier, once Chairman & CEO of Vivendi, is appealing to a French court to overturn a 2011 verdict that punished him with a 3-year suspended sentence and a €300,000 fine for embezzlement and deliberately misleading shareholders. The conviction followed on from his time at Compagnie Generale des Eaux during 1994 and the following 8 […]

Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat will deliver its Q1 numbers after the market shuts on October 29th, but most analysts expect a ‘steady as she goes’ report. Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, says candidly that ”very little happened in Q1” although that statement ignores the mid-September Tribunal decision to award key transmission […]

Netflix is an emblematic company; emblematic of the starkly simple fact that ubiquitous fast access is rewriting the rules of pay-TV. The California company does what ‘traditional’ players like Showtime and HBO do, but does it with an aggressive price and complete control of its marketing and – in most respects – its distribution. This […]

The German stock market seems to be enjoying a strong love affair with Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Deutschland pay-TV company.  21st Century Fox owns 54.5 per cent of Sky Deutschland, and the past few weeks have seen a remarkable rise in the broadcaster’s share price. Back on June 24 the price stood at €4.63. By October […]