Tough times continue in Eastern Europe, with poor job prospects forcing many to seek work abroad. This migration, married with low birth rates, mean that populations will fall in 15 of the 22 countries covered in Digital TV Research’s Eastern Europe Pay TV Forecasts report between 2016 and 2022. Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital […]
Cairo-based satellite operator Nilesatis to invest $300 million in a new satellite (and its launch costs), Nilesat 301. Further details on its build and launch plans are not yet available. The report comes fresh after news that Nilesat is to ‘partner’ with New Delhi-based Tata Communications in a new service for delivering regional media over […]
Charlie Ergen’s joint-venture in Dish Mexico with billionaire Carlos Slim’s Telmex operation has been hit with a fine by Mexico’s Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) for failing to observe the rules of its DTH concession to operate over Mexico. However, the problem is not likely to ruffle too many feathers. The Telmex fine was for […]
Rocket company SpaceX, already happy that it can recover the all-important first (or main booster) stage of its Falcon 9 rockets, is working towards recovering 100 per cent of the rocket. This includes the protective fairings (which envelop the actual satellite on top to the rocket) and also the rocket’s second stage. Each portion of the […]
The widespread labour strike in French Guiana shows no sign of ending. The action has forced rocket company Arianespace to suspend all work at the spaceport. The strike started on March 20th and now is more or less total with numerous road-blocks affecting all trade in the French colony. Some 37 labour unions are supporting […]
EU Competition Authorities have reportedly given the greenlight for 21st Century Fox to acquire full control of Sky plc. The acquisition, agreed last December, has also been referred to Ofcom by Karen Bradley, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The regulator now has 40 working days to decide whether the bid […]
Satellite operator SES’s Board of Directors has approved a restructuring of SES’s go-to-market organisation model with the creation of two highly-focused business units, SES Video and SES Networks, focusing on the video- and data-centric segments in which SES operates. The new organisation, which will be implemented during the course of 2017, will gather all go-to-market […]
Hong Kong-based Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) is in trouble with India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) over alleged “unauthorised” Direct-To-Home (DTH) transmissions into India. Local reports say that the MIB has asked India’s space authority to block the incoming signals which they state are being transmitted with licenses. Each of the major Indian DT […]
The strike at Arianespace’s Kourou spaceport in French Guiana has become even more bitter. Demonstrators gained access to a – normally – highly secure suite of offices and occupied the space centre’s main conference room, and refused to quit. Moreover, the space centre’s director Guillaume Faure, could not muster up enough police to evict the […]
Fashion TV has launched a dedicated Ultra High Definition channel, FTV UHD, on Eutelsat’s popular HOTBIRD neighbourhood. Fashion TV is leveraging HOTBIRD’s position to offer exclusive Ultra HD content to cable and IPTV networks across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. FTV UHD uses HEVC encoding with 10 bits of colour depth (one billion […]