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.
Last week, satellite operator SES declared its full year 2012 results which were slightly below their original guidance to the market, with revenues not helped by further solar-array problems on its AMC-16 satellite (which is wholly leased to EchoStar) and a delayed approval of its EGNOS ‘super’ GPS cargo on SES-5. Egnos is a European […]
A major report from investment banker Morgan Stanley states that Modern Times Group is “structurally better positioned” for the future than its peers. The bank has upgraded its 2013 forecasts, themselves helped by good Q4 results unveiled last week. The report takes a segment by segment view of MTG’s key businesses although pulls no punches […]
Norway’s Telenor is a telco giant with business telephony interests throughout the world as well as Scandinavian subsidiaries such as Canal Digital (pay-TV), Conax (conditional access), Norkring (TV distribution) and its Telenor Satellite Broadcasting division. Group CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas has told analysts that Telenor saw “immense developments in our industry. The world goes digital […]
Dish Network, never far from the courtroom, is suing sports giant ESPN for $152 million in a New York federal court in Manhattan. The argument concerns carriage deals, with Dish Network alleging that ESPN has broken the terms of a licensing agreement between the two parties. Barry Ostrager, a Dish lawyer from Simpson Thacher & […]
Last week the John Malone-controlled pay-radio operator unveiled record subscriber numbers as well as its best churn figures (1.8 per cent/month) for the past 5 years. The results also coincided with CEO Mel Karmazin stepping down (he went officially on Feb 1st) and being replaced by interim CEO Jim Mayer, who has a hard act […]
Thailand’s Food & Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 33 satellite channels saying they must stop airing “exaggerated” advertisements. The channels must immediately stop airing the commercials, or else face fines and potentially imprisonment. 301 channels were officially licensed (mostly with straightforward renewals) only last week by Thailand’s National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission, although […]
This coming Thursday (February 7th) will see Eutelsat reveal its half-year numbers, and the consensus from the market is that a series of records will emerge for the satellite operator. Top line video revenues are expected to grow by 8.6 per cent to €438 million and helping drive overall revenues to €633 million. The situation […]
The Italian commercial TV market remains in a depressed state, and the upcoming General Election is not helping the advertising market, says a report from Morgan Stanley. “Last year [we] anticipated TV ad-spend to be down -3 per cent. It closed 2012 down -13 per cent.” The report says that La7 saw Net ad-revenues tumble […]
The USA’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is backing a competition which could lead to a satellite servicing and rescue project called Phoenix. The plan for the Phoenix satellite calls for a space vehicle fitted with a manoeuvrable arm to salvage satellites and components from retired or damaged satellites. The scheme calls for the […]
BSkyB will unveil its end-December core numbers this coming Thursday (January 31st) and the consensus is that the pre-Christmas quarter year’s trading will show record numbers. For example, investment banker Morgan Stanley forecasts that revenues will have grown 4.2 per cent to £1.779 billion helped by the September price rise. Over the course of the […]
Netflix: “Our ads reach 190m+ viewers”
WBD adds 2.3m streaming subs in Q3
BT signs Starlink connectivity deal; H1 revenue dips
SES revenue up 20%; shares crash
Analysis: John Lewis Xmas ad generating intense positive emotions
TiVo One at 4.8m MAUs
Study: IP addresses unreliable for ad targeting
Orange, Eutelsat inaugurate gateway in Martinique
S4C contributes over £150m to Welsh economy in 2024/25
Research: Swedes watching more social video, less TV