Everyone expected Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat to improve on last year’s revenues of €1.04 billion. Few would have expected growth of 11.5 per cent, well above guidance, and taking revenues to an impressive €1.168 billion. Indeed, Eutelsat is now saying that this current trading year (to June 30 2012) will see revenues above €1.235 billion, […]
The Middle East has around 30 all-news channels, with plenty more in the offing, including BSkyB’s upcoming Arabic-language service launching early next year. To that number must now be added a proposed Lebanese-Syrian all-news channel, called Al-Khamisah (“the fifth”). Launch date is October 1, at least for a ‘soft launch’ service, with a full-scale launch […]
Following comments made July 27 by UK commercial broadcaster ITV as it reported its Interim Results that it was seeking to drive new revenue streams by exploiting its content across multiple platforms, free and pay, satellite operator SES Astra has revealed that ITV has signed a long-term agreement for satellite capacity. The agreement provides for […]
BT has surpassed 600,000 subscribers for its BT Vision hybrid DTT/IPTV service it confirmed in its Q2 results – up from 575,000 customers three months previously. The UK telco also added 71,000 customers to its superfast broadband service ‘BT Infinity’ in the second quarter of 2011, bringing the total to over 200,000, and its superfast […]
Brazil’s National Telecoms Agency says that the country now has more than 11 million pay-TV subscribers. 1.3 million net new subs were added during the first half of this year, with DTH satellite taking just over half of that total. A total of 235,000 subs were added in June alone. DTH now has 5.61 million […]
Satellite operator SES unveils its half-year results on Friday (July 28), and is expected to confirm that its upcoming QuetzSat-1 satellite will be launched in September, probably around the 14th by International Launch Services from Kazakhstan. The satellite left Space Systems/Loral’s facilities on July 23, headed for the launch site. QuetzSat-1 has an unusual mission […]
Euroconsult, the research and analyst firm specialised in the satellite communications sector, has published the findings of its most recent study of fixed satellite services. “2010 was a particularly important year for FSS operators with a number of important strategic investments, including in Ka-band,” said Richard Roithner, Senior Consultant at Euroconsult. Among the FSS operators […]
Freesat has confirmed the arrival of ITV Player on its subscription-free TV service. The only TV service to offer both ITV Player and BBC iPlayer, Freesat’s viewers can now catch-up on all ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 programmes, up to seven days after broadcast. ITV Player can be found on channel 903 on the Freesat […]
The delayed Astra 1N satellite is now slated for launch on the evening of August 3 from the Kourou space centre in French Guiana. Originally the satellite was planned to launch on July 1, but a last minute technical hitch brought the countdown to a halt. The anomaly was detected on a valve of the […]
As if to prove the ultra-sensitivity of broadcasting over the Middle East, Cairo-based satellite operator Nilesat is being sued for carrying the Shiite channel Fadak TV. Two Egyptian lawyers have lodged a case against Cairo’s Ministry of Information, as well as the chairman of Nilesat, saying that the channel and a Shiite preacher Yasser Al […]