If ever there was a ‘bargain basement’ acquisition that could resonate well beyond the $75 million purchase price it is Eutelsat’s buying of Noorsat in a deal which closed on October 13th. Noorsat is a capacity re-seller, with some 30 transponders under overall contract at the Nilesat/Eutelsat ‘hot spot’ at 7/8 degrees West, but also […]
Satellite operators are wrong to wring every last dollars-worth of revenue out of aging satellites, suggested insurance experts at the Tokyo meeting of the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council (APSCC). Operators needed to be more prudent, said underwriters, in order to reduce catastrophic failures. Delegates heard a list of unfortunate failures this past 12 months, including: […]
Moving to consolidate its presence in the Middle East, Eutelsat has acquired Noorsat, one of the leading satellite service providers in the Middle East, from Bahrain’s Orbit Holding Group, in a deal valued at $75 million (€63.4m). Established in 2004, Noorsat is the premier distributor of Eutelsat capacity in the Middle East, serving blue-chip customers […]
October 11th saw another 100 per cent successful launch for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, and a flawless landing of the craft’s first stage. It was the third time that SpaceX had flown a previously-used first stage, and the 15th launch this year (with another half-dozen likely by year-end). The success confirmed SpaceX’s senior director Tom […]
Sky has announced its Q1 results (to September 30th) saying there were 160,000 new customers (up 51 per cent) during the quarter-year, helping to drive like-for-like revenues up 5 per cent to £3.3 billion (€3.68bn), and an 11 per cent increase in EBITDA to £582 million. CEO Jeremy Darroch reminded analysts that it had launched […]
Reacting to AT&T’s Stock Market guidance that it expects to lose 390K traditional video subscribers, netted against a gain of 300K OTT subscribers, Craig Moffett, Partner and Senior Analyst at research firm MoffettNathanson has suggested that, in addition to general cord-cutting pressures, satellite TV is particularly affected. AT&T’s 8-K filing states: “The video net losses […]
A study (Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2026) from Paris-based Euroconsult says that it anticipates that 300 satellites with a mass over 50 kg will be launched on average each year by 2026 for government agencies and commercial organisations worldwide. This is a threefold increase over the past decade as the satellite market […]
A flawless sunset launch by Elon Musk-backed SpaceX placed a heavyweight joint-venture Airbus-built SES/EchoStar satellite into geostationary orbit on October 11th. Some four minutes after launch, the already pre-flown first stage of the rocket landed on a floating barge (named ‘Of course I still love you’) some 600 kms downrange and off Florida’s East coast. Wednesday’s launch […]
An Airbus-built electric satellite Eutelsat 172B has reached its target geostationary orbit in record time. Eutelsat 172B was only launched on June 1st, and uses electrical ION thrusters to reach orbit. This system represents massive savings in the amount of on-board fuel which a chemically-driven satellite would need. The downside is that such electric thrusters […]
SpaceX will tonight (October 11th, weather permitting) launch a condominium satellite operated by SES and EchoStar. The twin-mission satellite was built by Airbus Defense & Space and will go to 105 degrees West. SES will use a portion of the craft and its C-band transponders. EchoStar will tap into the satellite’s 24 Ku-band transponders for […]