A study from Northern Sky research (NSR) confirms a definite downward trend in video-related revenues for the world’s main satellite operators. NRS’s Satellite Industry’s Financial Analysis, 10th Edition report gives

Poorly-performing economies have hit Latin American pay-TV, according to the Latin America Pay TV Forecasts report from analyst firm Digital TV Research. The number of pay-TV subscribers fell by 4 million in both 2019 and 2020. Venezuela dropped 2.4 million subscribers in 2020 alone, mainly as a result of DirecTV’s withdrawal. Across Latin America, the […]

As expected, AT&T is to sell off a slice of DirecTV to TPG and spin off the company to a new business. Private equity firm TPG will then own 30 per cent of the new entity with AT&T holding on to the balance. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this […]

German public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), regional member of the ARD broadcasting group operating in North Rhine-Westphalia, has expanded its partnership with SES to secure an additional transponder for HD programming on ASTRA 19.2 degrees East orbital position in a multi-year contract. Starting March 3rd, viewers in the region will be able to receive WDR’s […]

Ahead of its results announcement, SES confirmed it had extended its contract with Sky UK that will result in a €90 million gain in its secured backlog. SES added: “By the end of the renewed contract, Sky UK will have been an SES customer continuously for almost four decades.” “This is a significant, multi-transponder, multi-year […]

There are unconfirmed reports that TPG (the former Texas Pacific Group) is to take a significant but minority stake in AT&T’s DirecTV business. Reuters reported that discussions were at an advanced stage some weeks ago, and the stake is understood to include AT&T’s TV NOW and U-verse offerings.  CNBC and Bloomberg are both reporting on […]

The past few days have seen a slew of press statements from SES regarding contract renewals and fresh deals. The latest pair come ahead of the satellite operator’s results statement on February 25th. None of the releases are quantified in terms of value, but no doubt questions will be asked by the analysts on the […]

SES has announced content agreements with NHK and a number of cruise operators ahead of its results statement on February 25th. Japanese public broadcaster NHK World has re-signed a multi-year contract for distribution in HD from 19.2 degrees East to more than 45 million homes over Europe. Additionally, SES Networks has contracted capacity agreements with […]

SES has confirmed the signing of multi-year capacity agreements totalling over €66 million in backlog with multiple public broadcasters in Europe throughout 2020,  whch it says will “enable millions of satellite TV households across Europe to continue watching SD and HD content delivered with world-class reliability”. The public broadcasters who have signed contracts directly with […]

Research from Amdocs Media, a software provider to media and communications companies, into UK consumers’ digital subscriptions has revealed that more people now have an OTT/streaming subscription than a traditional cable/satellite TV subscription. Findings include: More people in the UK now have an OTT/streaming subscription (83 per cent) than a traditional cable/satellite TV subscription (69 […]