Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
There are many competent suppliers of In Flight Entertainment systems for airlines. It is also clear that travellers love the broadband connectivity increasingly on offer from the likes of Gogo, Global Eagle Entertainment or Panasonic Avionics. There’s also US-based ViaSat and its Exede airline connectivity service. ViaSat/Exede, as of June 30th, had 509 aircraft equipped […]
Satellites, once launched, tend not to come back to Earth. Geostationary communications satellites, once they have reached their end-of-life are sent to a ‘graveyard’ orbit a few hundred kilometres above their normal orbits. Other lower-orbiting satellites usually descend to Earth in a safe fireball that burns them up. But back in 1992 a European Space […]
That’s the problem when a free-to-air network spends $1.23 billion on TV rights for the Olympic Games, they have to earn that cash back – and make a profit. The 2016 Rio opening ceremony, at 4.5 hours, seemed to some commentators on social media that NBC was attempting to break broadcasting records by airing more […]
Avanti Communications saw a dramatic jump in its share price on August 4th. At the start of the day the well-depressed shares were priced at 22p, but as the day progressed at one point they had almost doubled in value (to 39p) helped by a news report on the FT’s Alphaville news blog. At the […]
SES is sitting on a potential cash war-chest equal to some $1.6 billion (€1.47bn) which could be spent on a global broadband satellite system. The cash pile is building up now as part of the operator’s financial planning and will fully be in place by 2020. Reports in trade magazine Space News say that SES […]
July 29th saw Eutelsat unveil its end-of-year results. It also gave market analysts a chance to question the CEO Rodolphe Belmer on the satellite operator’s strategy. Analysts eagerly wanted to know what the latest news was on Eutelsat’s move to sell its 33.69 per cent stake in Madrid-based operator Hispasat. Somewhat focusing the equity analysts’ minds […]
The satellite industry has had a torrid time lately (and SES and Eutelsat’s numbers are out on July 29th) and one equity analyst, Giles Thorne from investment bank Jefferies, admits that the sector has been very bearish ever since Eutelsat’s profit warning in May. But he praises Intelsat, and says that Jefferies have repeatedly argued […]
France’s Number 1 commercial broadcaster TF1 is having a torrid time. Six or more months ago it might have blamed the ‘economic downturn’ then badly affecting the nation. But the current position, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank, is that French consumer spending is recovering. But this is not the case at TF1. Analyst Laurie […]
Charlie Ergen, founder and chairman/CEO at DISH Network, which on June 21st reported it had lost 281,000 subscribers during its Q2, said he was determined to do without Tribune Broadcasting’s 42 local stations which have been ‘dark’ for more than five weeks. DISH is in a retransmission fee dispute with Tribune which Ergen described as […]
July 28th sees Sky unveil its Q4 and full year results (to June 30th) and equity analysts at Deutsche Bank suggest that investors should not be obsessed with the usual key performance indicators (subs, churn, and such like) and instead focus on Sky’s core financials. Analyst Laurie Davison warns that Sky will suffer rising UK […]
WBD warms to Paramount offer
Eutelsat seeks €1.5bn refinancing
Survey: Sports viewing shifts to multi-format future
Research: Consumers losing hundreds to illegal streaming fraud
Kantar Media rebrands as Fifty5Blue
AudioUK appoints Baughen as CEO
Gracenote metadata to power Samsung content search
Report: Copper switch-off progresses unevenly across Europe
How to hedge streaming stocks with hard assets
Starlink wraps Gen-1 DTC