The annual ‘Big Four’ gathering at the giant Satellite show in Washington (SES’s Romain Bausch, Intelsat’s Dave McGlade, Eutelsat’s Michel de Rosen and Telesat’s Dan Goldberg), delivered some powerful home truths to the industry, with each of them combining to praise the innovation that’s come from Elon Musk and his SpaceX lower-cost rocket venture, and […]

BBC Monitoring has published a report, sourced from the Saudi Gazette, stating that Al Jazeera’s editorial office and facility in Saudi Arabia is to be closed. The report says: “A local source at the channel said the decision to close down the Qatari satellite channel provider would be implemented within the next few days. The […]

There used to be an entire industry devoted to Kremlin watching during the Cold War, it’s a pastime that’s enjoying – if that’s the right word – a revival just now. The BBC bureaucracy has sometimes been compared to the Kremlin and defining, deducing or second guessing its next move sometimes seems as fraught. Lord […]

James Murdoch, 21st Century Fox’s deputy COO, says recent disposals have freed up cash for reinvesting in the company’s core businesses, including sports channels. However, speaking at Morgan Stanley’s TMT conference in New York, he also said that 21st Century Fox would continue to look for potential acquisitions provided the price was right. Questioned as […]

The first ever closing of a BBC channel has been done to pave the way for the first ever tax imposed for receiving content over the Internet. The BBC, in the person of its Director General Lord Tony Hall, says the BBC is taking difficult and necessary decisions in the face of real term cuts […]

All satellite capacity in India has to be organised via the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which has a monopoly on supplying transponders, and wholesaling the supply of capacity from non-ISRO satellites. Last year TataSky said it would sue ISRO for not making capacity available. There has been a four-year wait for capacity, not all […]

Getting a satellite into space is hard – and worrying – work for any broadcaster or operator. When that satellite also has an essential and massive antenna on board, it takes the headache to a new level. And when there’s past evidence that similar giant antennas can prove to be stubborn and not deploy then […]

The giant Airbus Group (which used to be known as EADS) has within it a division that manufactures the giant Ariane 5 rockets as part of its Astrium operation which also builds communications satellites used by many of the world’s broadcasters. Astrium received an outline contract last year to build 18 higher-capacity Ariane rockets for […]

The past week has seen London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti Communications have something of a roller-coaster in terms of its share price, and market reception. Last week saw Avanti announce a contract win from mobile telco giant Vodafone, which immediately propelled Avanti’s share price from the previous week’s miserable £1.95 (€2.29) to a much healthier […]

Last Friday’s results from Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES have now been digested by the market, and one investment bank didn’t much care for what they saw. Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, welcomed SES’s guidance that this year should drive revenues up 6-7 per cent but then said that they were expecting more! The […]