Despite now being a stand-alone company, the Google-backed ‘Loon’ high-flying stratospheric broadband balloon project, says it is looking for satellite partners. Loon already has a commercial contract covering Kenya (with Telecom Kenya) and is seeking other local telcos in East Africa. Loon’s balloons fly at between 15-20 kilometres high and can stay aloft for weeks. […]
Despite a 45 minute delay during the countdown process, Arianespace lifted two Intelsat ‘condominium’ satellites into orbit late in the evening of September 25th. The rocket launch, the 300th mission of the Ariane family of rockets and 100th flight of an Ariane 5, launched at 18.38 EDT (22.38 UTC) and carried two Intelsat satellites: the […]
Local TV broadcast audiences in Nigeria now have access to 13 new FTA channels delivered as a multi-channel bouquet branded ‘Premium.FREE’. The bouquet’s launch channels will be supplied by AfricaXP and delivered via SES satellites at 28.2 degrees East. AfricaXP is an independent African channel network, content distributor and producer, which owns and operates over […]
A major report from Paris-based Euroconsult says that the satellite industry will see revenues shift more towards telco and data-based traffic and revenues, and away from video and DTH income. Based on the latest market projections, wholesale capacity revenues from telecom applications will surpass video applications by 2021. The growth is largely supported by the […]
The Middle East game of ‘musical chairs’ in terms of satellite merger and acquisitions continues. Last month saw Abu Dhabi’s satellite operator Yahsat complete its purchase of a majority stake in Thuraya, which supplies connectivity to mobile, data and IoT clients. “We can confirm that this is the first major transaction made by Yahsat in […]
In a move that enhances the Isle of Man’s status as a media cluster, satellite operator SES has opened new teleport on the island. Laurence Skelly MHK, Minister for Enterprise, formally opened the new state-of-the-art facility in the presence of Steve Collar, President and CEO of SES, and Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES. […]
Indian DTH operator Independent TV (previously known as ‘Big TV’), and backed by Reliance Communications, is losing money hand-over-fist. In its full-year results (to March 31st) the DTH operation’s revenues crashed 45.4 per cent and representing a nine-fold increase in losses over the previous year. Reliance Communications (RCom) said that the company has entered into […]
London-based speciality satellite operator Avanti says it has signed a seven-year wholesale capacity lease worth $12 million annually, and $84 million in total. Avanti has not named the client other than to say it is a “major international satellite service provider”. The contract kicks in mid-2019 and in its statement to the London Stock Exchange, […]
A Launch Readiness Review is due to take place on September 21st for a somewhat complex mission. One satellite, Intelsat Horizons 3e, is owned by Intelsat and Japan’s SkyPerfect JSAT, and is the fourth joint-venture between Intelsat and JSAT. Intelsat Horizons 3e will go to 169 degrees East and replace Intelsat 805. The Arianespace rocket […]
Research by the International Television Research Group (inTV) – a cooperative group of independent channels whose objective is to promote the benefits of international TV to the advertising/communications industry – and market research firm GlobalWebIndex has identified an untapped TV audience of 112.5 million consumers who are frequent consumers of international TV channels, but who […]