Satellite operators and launch contractors save their big news for the giant Washington DC satellite show, and this year’s event is no different. Sea Launch, that only a year ago was exiting bankruptcy, said it had signed up a launch contract for Intelsat-27, due for launch early next year. Sea Launch will use its Zenith […]
UK broadcasting regulator Ofcom is ramping up its investigation into whether BSkyB is a “fit and proper person” to hold UK broadcasting licences. Ofcom says it set up a dedicated team in January (called Project Apple) to investigate material emerging from the Levenson inquiry into phone hacking and corruption at News International’s UK print titles. […]
Two days ago we were reporting that talks were progressing well on the sale of Malaysia-based Measat, and that Arabsat as well as Eutelsat (and others) were lining up to bid for the satellite assets. Measat handles around 400 TV and 160 radio channels as well as DTH platforms and beams its signals to more […]
Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, suggests that despite recent share price growth for German commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, the network still has plenty of upside momentum. This positive outlook is helped by Pro7/Sat1 increasingly robust view that German advertising is recovering for 2012. Forward TV ad-sales booking commitments are up 2 per […]
Whatever criticism might have been targeted against Rupert or James Murdoch over the whole News International/News of the World phone hacking scandal, nobody could suggest that BSkyB hasn’t played a wholly balanced and fair game as far as its major 39 per cent shareholder is concerned. Indeed, Sky News has been thorough and entirely open […]
South Africa’s TopTV has had a tough couple of weeks, having lost its CEO and with news emerging that barely half of its issued 360,000 set-top boxes remain active. Indeed, a report from investment bankers Morgan Stanley on Naspers (which is a major investor in Multichoice/DStv) suggests that TopTV “is unlikely to make major inroads” […]
There has been something of a ‘battle royal’ in India as the nation’s broadcasting giants slug it out for viewer loyalty. The latest numbers show that Zee TV is back in ascendancy. Its performance isn’t quite good enough to place it at the top of the ratings (a position still held by Star Plus), nor […]
It is a tale of two cities, where one is an evil regime that won’t allow people to watch satellite TV, and then there’s Iran! Iran doesn’t like satellite TV, or perhaps more accurately it doesn’t like TV that comes into its country from outside its borders. The United Nations, via the International Telecommunications Union, […]
China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s son, Wen Yunsong, has taken the helm at APY Satellite Holdings, the Hong Kong-based satellite operator. As a result the company’s stock price has rocketed by almost 50 per cent this past week. Investors – and China-watchers generally – are betting on the move representing a change of heart by […]
By common consent, two types of employee in the modern world are vastly overpaid: bankers and footballers. The difference, again by common consent, is that if footballers don’t perform, it is obvious and they are got rid of – the Darwinism of the market. Whereas, bankers continue to earn vast sums despite their banks making […]