When you don’t want the limelight, it seems like you just can’t shake it off. As more UK executives are arrested for bribing law enforcement and military officials, News Corps in America has had to suddenly, and arbitrarily, suspend the voting power of its foreign shareholders – holders that account for 36% of the stock. […]

That a satellite operator should buy a new craft from a satellite manufacturer is hardly news. However, when it is Israel’s Spacecom, which is reportedly considering buying its next craft from Space Systems/Loral, then it is more important news. Israel’s state-owned manufacturer (Israel Aerospace Industries, IAI) is still a possible supplier, say reports. However, it […]

Investors loved the news that Sky Deutschland (Sky-D) had secured the next four seasons of satellite and cable coverage of Germany’s pay-TV bundesliga soccer rights. Early morning trading on Wednesday April 18 continued the Tuesday boost, which saw Sky-D’s share price rise more than 20 per cent. Deutsche Telekom gets nothing, nor does Al Jazeera. […]

Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, says that last week’s admission by BSkyB that a journalist on its Sky News team hacked into certain emails with the knowledge and approval of Sky News’ then managing editor, ought to have “limited ramifications” for the broadcaster. The bank says that while the action was […]

North Korea’s entry into the world’s portfolio of rocket launch suppliers failed early Friday April 13, when its rocket blew up around 60 to 90 seconds into its satellite launching mission. The Unha-3 rocket failed despite North Korea’s confidence that – this time – everything would go well. Indeed, it was so confident of success […]

Bahrain is threatening to quit the Arabsat satellite consortium, unhappy that Arabsat has, in its view, failed to take down certain channels that are broadcasting content not to Bahrain’s liking. Satellite operator Arabsat is owned by a consortium of Arab telecommunications companies, mostly themselves owned by their governments. Bahrain says Arabsat is “failing to take […]

Elon Musk, the wealthy owner of rocket launch company SpaceX, is considering building a new satellite launch site in southern Texas, south of Corpus Christi, and almost on the Mexican Border. The plans call for a launch site to be built near Brownsville in Cameron County (and specifically south of Port Isabel). Musk’s company has […]

So James Murdoch has quit as chairman of BSkyB. That phrase implies he had a choice, which isn’t really true. The other investors in Sky – who, let us remember, own most of it – were getting nervous that under the continued scrutiny of Parliament and Ofcom the presence of Murdoch in the chair was, […]

Journalist, BBC commentator and founding Chairman of BSkyB forerunner Sky TV Andrew Neil, addressing SES Astra’s annual Satellite Monitor unveiling, gave some valuable clues as to how the current News Corporation/BSkyB ownership predicament might unfold. ‘First, the Murdochs have to go,’ Neil implied. He explained that the current 39 per cent News Corp ownership position […]

In terms of revelations, Panorama provided not much that wasn’t already known, or assumed, in the NDS hacking saga: Criminals allege criminal behaviour in the inevitably very murky world of encryption, hacking and counter measures. NDS admit hacking – to test its rival’s technology – and it is accepted as standard practice. NDS strenuously denies […]