According to a recent global survey of broadcasters, 82 per cent believe that cellular networks such as 5G will eventually replace traditional broadcast distribution such as DTT/DTV and satellite as the preferred way to access TV content, with over a third (37 per cent) of these respondents expecting this to begin happening within one to […]
Millions of households across Africa, Europe, and Asia-Pacific will be able to access a free-to-air TV channel via SES satellites dedicated to delivering informative content about Covid-19. The channel, titled Fight COVID-19, broadcasts content that is aimed at providing underserved and rural communities with critical information about how to limit the spread of the virus. […]
Arianespace has been planning and designing its Ariane 9 rocket for the best part of 10 years. It had been planned to launch a debut test flight this year. That plan is now subject to a severe delay. Arianespace now officially says that the new rocket will not fly until the second half of 2021, […]
Satellite operator SES has reached an agreement with its personnel delegations to discontinue social plan talks for its Luxembourg-based employees, instead shifting gears to negotiate an employment safeguard plan. In Luxembourg, SES management and its personnel delegation reports they have had multiple meetings in the last four weeks. Together, they have managed to reduce the […]
BBC Studios has awarded a major multi-year playout, management and distribution contract to SES to cover more than 50 linear channels and their associated VoD services. The contract, which will serve BBC Studio and the UKTV platform, will be handled by SES’s European global delivery services with technical playout infrastructure provided from SES’s new Stockley […]
ViacomCBS has reached a new multi-year renewal of its carriage agreement with Dish Network in the US. The agreement keeps the ViacomCBS broadcast and cable networks on Dish and its Sling TV virtual multichannel video programming distributors. Dish has been focused on its move into wireless with Boost Mobile. ViacomCBS signed distribution renewals with Verizon […]
The Philippine’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has banned SkyCable, the satellite DTH subsidiary of broadcaster ABS-CBN. SkyCable has about 1.5 million subscribers according to local reports. The NTC says that SkyCable’s licences have expired. However, ABS-CBN has also been ordered to ‘cease-and-desist’ its terrestrial broadcasts because on May 4th its transmission licence expired. SkyCable’s cable […]
Two recently initiated DVB work items reached important milestones at the most recent Steering Board meeting. The commercial requirements for native IP video delivery over broadcast satellite were approved; and work will proceed on the creation of commercial requirements for the use of DVB-I as a service layer on top of 5G technologies. The 95th […]
Charlie Ergen’s move into cellular telephony is proving to be costly. A $1 billion debt offering of Senior Notes by Dish Network has been priced at 7.35 per cent. The debt is due for repayment by 2028. As a comparison last week SES offered a €400 million Eurobond, also due for repayment in 2028, and […]
Along the line of well-established actors such as Freeview in the UK, DTH free-to-air bouquets are spreading around sub-Saharan Africa, reports Dataxis. These offers, which bundle free channels into identifiable packages accessible through the purchase of specific set-top-boxes, are currently received by more than 8 million households in the region – a number to put […]