Advanced Television

Inside Satellite

Chris Forrester

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.

FiOS forcing rethink on cable bundle fees?

There could be a major restructuring of cable carriage fees in store. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon is already in discussions with some channel owners about adjusting their fees to more accurately reflect viewing audiences to its FiOS digital service. The argument is that some channels, and the WSJ specifically lists the […]

March 18, 2013

Pope boosts Eutelsat with news demand

Eutelsat has, so far, sold more than 700 hours of extra capacity for news links from Rome, helped by the election of Pope Francis. The satellite operator described the demand for extra capacity as “intense” and spread over 5 of its satellites. Eutelsat says demand for capacity accelerated when the College of Cardinals began deliberation […]

March 15, 2013

Harrods goes 4K and OLED crazy

Harrods, the iconic London department store, is awash with OLED and 4K displays. Its street windows are showcasing LG’s latest 55” OLED ultra-thin display – a snip at £10,000 (€11,500) a time – while its electronics department has another pair of the beasts on display, and available for pre-ordering. Harrods sales staff say they “are […]

March 10, 2013

India government criticises MSOs

India’s government has dismissed critics of its TV digitalisation plan, including those who say that a new set-top box tax will damage the process. India’s powerful Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry says that the nation’s MSOs have more than 2.2 million set-top boxes in stock, with a similar amount already procured, mostly from China and […]

March 8, 2013By Chris Forrester

Meltdown at the UK’s YouView

Things were already bad at YouView, the UK’s struggling on-demand TV service, but there was complete meltdown on February 28th when the operation’s Chairman, Lord Alan Sugar (who fronts the UK’s version of The Apprentice reality TV show) and the owner of Channel 5, Richard Desmond reportedly came to near fisticuffs during a regular board […]

March 3, 2013

Eutelsat and Deutsche Telekom settle sat-dispute

Eutelsat has been arguing with Deutsche Telekom over certain satellite assets at 28.5 degrees (which is the location used to beam hundreds of TV channels into the UK and Ireland).  The dispute has been settled. The argument has been the subject of arbitration proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, and the result […]

February 28, 2013

Morgan Stanley: SES faces operational risks

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 […]

February 25, 2013

MTG: “Better positioned” than rivals

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 […]

February 19, 2013

Telenor: “Digital and data growth is phenomenal”

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 […]

February 15, 2013

Dish vs ESPN a whole new can of worms

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 & […]

February 13, 2013