The 40th meeting of Arabsat’s general assembly in Muscat, Oman, which wrapped on April 13th, agreed to exempt the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) from any fees or debts for using Arabsat’s satellites. Ahmad Assaf, chairman of the PBC, who headed the Palestinian delegation to the Arabsat meeting, thanked the assembly for their support for Palestine […]
Florida residents must pay a higher tax if viewing programming from satellite rather than cable TV. The Florida Supreme Court made the ruling on April 13th and overturned an earlier court decision that tax rates for satellite or cable viewing should be the same. Both DirecTV and Dish Network had initially sued the state (back […]
A report from speciality satellite channel facility business Noorsat, and following on from the recent CabSat show in Dubai, says that although 80 percent of viewers in the region are already equipped to receive High-Definition TV, the region is lagging behind the rest of the world. For example, of the 1,500 channels broadcasting in the […]
Airtel Digital TV, the DTH arm of Indian multiplay operator Bharti Airtel, has launched ‘Internet TV’ – India’s first hybrid STB, powered by Android TV, which brings the best of online content to the TV screen along with a bouquet of over 500 plus satellite TV channels. Airtel ‘Internet TV’ transforms any TV into a […]
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) says it has signed an agreement with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop advanced capabilities for servicing and maintaining spacecraft in geostationary orbit. Details of the partnership were initially released back in February, but the full details are now being made public. The concept is to build and […]
There are no signs of strikers in French Guiana calling off their protests and allowing rocket company Arianespace resuming their launch activity. The strike is now in its 4th week. The strikers have brought the country to a near-standstill with roadblocks throughout the region. Their complaints centre on low wages, extremely high unemployment rates and […]
The past year or two have not been the best of times for satellite operators. In some markets, there has been over-capacity which has led – in some cases – to heavy discounting. In other sectors, it has been government (i.e. military) spending which has been trimmed. One firm of analysts, Northern Sky Research (NSR) […]
Orion, federal satellite operator in Russia and global TV operator SPI International / FILMBOX signed a distribution agreement based on which Orion now offers seven SPI channels on its Telekarta television platform and becomes the exclusive distributor of SPI channels in Russia. In the first stage of cooperation Orion has uplinked seven channels from the […]
India’s “inactive” DTH subscribers rose 5.2 percent in Q3 and Q4 last year, according to data from the country’s Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI). The country’s 6 private DTH operators reported the rises to TRAI, and took the ‘inactive’ subs to its highest-ever at 34.4 million (to Dec 31st 2016). The previous quarter’s cancellations placed the […]
The pay-TV market in the Middle East and North Africa saw record growth in 2016 despite harsh economic conditions, according to new analysis released by critical information, analytics and solutions source IHS Markit. Pay-TV households topped the five million mark for the first time in the region’s history, growing 8 per cent year-on-year. Revenues rose […]