There’s a huge amount of uncertainty over the precise state of the two satellites which failed to launch on Monday when a Russian Proton rocket suffered technical problems. The USA’s Strategic Command says 4 objects are in the same dangerous orbit. These are thought to be the Briz-M booster, a fuel tank, and the two […]

With commercial network broadcasting across Europe in the advertising doldrums (Spain and Italy in a state of near-collapse) it’s good to see a positive report on one broadcaster in the shape of Germany’s Pro7/Sat1 group. Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, suggests that Pro7 had a “strong performance in H1” and that […]

Satellite giant Intelsat says its newly-launched EPIC high-throughput satellites have already taken $500 millions-worth of new business even though the satellites are not yet operational. The deals are fascinating, and include aircraft broadband services from Panasonic as well as valuable contracts from the likes of Harris CapRock and MTN Satellite Comms. The new Intelsat satellites […]

Eutelsat’s full year results were released late on July 30 showing some extremely solid numbers, including confirmation of an extra satellite order for the operator’s increasingly ‘hot’ orbital spot over the Middle East. But conspicuous by its absence was any detailed explanation on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat and its TooWay ‘broadband by satellite’ service. Eutelsat says its […]

Satellite operator SES’ president and CEO Romain Bausch repeated during a conference call that SES remained interested in acquiring the Greek-Cyprus satellite operator HellasSat, but implied that the Athens company had first to make up its mind to sell the asset. He told one caller that for at least the past year or so SES […]

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES reported further revenue growth on July 27 (for the six months to June 30) citing successes in winning business from new markets as being partly responsible. Revenues were up 4.8 per cent over the same period last year (to €892 million) and generating an operating profit up 2.4 per cent to […]

This Friday (July 27th) SES will unveil its latest financial numbers, but ahead of those figures, it says that it is now leading its rivals in terms of HDTV deployment, and is carrying more than 1,300 high-def channels. They comprise more than 25 per cent of the 5200 channels carried by the SES fleet. As […]

It seems that ‘content is still king’ as far as broadcasters are concerned. While the 10-day stand-off between programme supplier Viacom and broadcast platform DirecTV was settled last Friday, the one element missing from the press statements was money! Now, if reports on Bloomberg and elsewhere can be believed, Viacom boss Phillipe Dauman can rub […]

In the latest issue of Euromedia we publish our annual STB Survey taking the temperature of the segment. Casual observers might think ‘cooling’ would be the obvious answer as Smart TVs become the norm in the replacement market and more and more Apps developers and content companies make provision deals with the various manufacturers. Nonetheless, […]

Vivendi staffers, including those working for Canal Plus, are seriously backing their employer with their wallets. Around 10,000 staff have participated in Vivendi’s capital increase, and spending €126.9 million in a share-buying spree. Vivendi’s employees bought 12.3 million new shares, and now own 3.4 per cent of the business and are the fourth-largest shareholder group […]