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SiriusXM funds $2bn share buyback

US pay-radio operator SiriusXM is ploughing another $2 billion into buying back its own shares. This means that SiriusXM has authorised and bought back a total of $16 billion of common stock since 2013. The company says it will fund the repurchases through cash on hand, future cash flow from operations, and future borrowings. SiriusXM […]

July 16, 2020By Chris Forrester

Inmarsat demands Speedcast payment

Last week Australia-based Speedcast (in bankruptcy reconstruction) struck an agreement with Intelsat (in Chapter 11 bankruptcy) which will see Speedcast continue its relationship with Intelsat over the next 15 months and pay what it owes to Intelsat. Speedcast owed Intelsat $45 million of old pre-bankruptcy invoices and will pay $24 million to cover obligations through […]

July 16, 2020

Telia appoints new CFO and COO

Effective August 1st, Per Christian Mørland will take on the position of EVP, Group CFO of Telia Company, replacing Douglas Lubbe who is currently serving as acting CFO. Mørland is currently CFO of Telia Norway, a position he has held since October 2015. He brings 16 years of deep telco experience from within the Nordics […]

July 16, 2020

Qualcomm drives next-gen compression standard

Qualcomm Technologies has announced the completion of the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard for video compression. Qualcomm’s leadership in contributing technologies, driving proof-of-concepts, and bringing the standard development to conclusion resulted in the standard completion on July 6th, with commercial deployments expected in 2021. VVC is the next-generation video compression standard designed to power the […]

July 16, 2020

beIN attacks ‘nonsensical’ Saudi ban

Saudi Arabia says it has permanently terminated the broadcast licence of beIN Sports, which had been barred from broadcasting in the kingdom since mid-2017, over political disputes with Qatar. Saudi’s General Authority for Competition (GAC) said that it was also fining beIN Sports 10 million riyals (€2.34m) for practices “that restrict competition”. GAC’s decision follows […]

July 15, 2020By Colin Mann

C-Band: SES wants $1.8bn from bankrupt Intelsat

SES Americom, the US division of the Luxemburg-based satellite operator, is seeking $1.8 billion (€1.5bn) in damages from Intelsat which is in bankruptcy. SES is alleging that Intelsat has breached the contract between the two operators which was agreed to handle the sale of C-band frequencies over the US. The SES filing, lodged on July […]

July 15, 2020By Chris Forrester

Indonesia: Major drop in streaming piracy

A study of the online content viewing behaviour of Indonesian consumers has found a massive 55 per cent reduction in consumers accessing piracy websites over the past ten months. The survey, commissioned by the Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP) and conducted by YouGov, found that 28 per cent of online consumers currently […]

July 15, 2020By Colin Mann

Research: Bills should be effective comms tools

Research from telecoms analyst firm Omnisperience and digital bill communications and analytics specialist Soft-ex has found that 84 per cent of communications service providers (CSPs) are planning to invest in more effective customer communications in the next 24 months. Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, CSPs played a vital role in keeping both enterprises and households connected, […]

July 15, 2020

Report: 17bn ‘credential stuffing’ attacks in two years

The media industry suffered 17 billion credential stuffing attacks –  the automated injection of breached username/password pairs in order to fraudulently gain access to user accounts – between January 2018 and December 2019 according to a new report from intelligent edge platform specialist Akamai. The Akamai 2020 State of the Internet / Credential Stuffing in […]

July 15, 2020

FCC must keep “unwavering focus” on C-Band

The National Association of [US] Broadcasters (NAB) in a filing to the FCC said the transition plans submitted by the various satellite operators as to the impending changes to C-band transmissions said they were optimistic about the transition. However, NAB cautioned the FCC to maintain an “unwavering focus on the protection of content distribution” over […]

July 15, 2020