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.
The broadcasting industry is gearing up for the ‘next big thing’, and well beyond today’s 3D, ‘smart’ TVs and HDTV. With the giant IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin now underway, and just days away from IBC, the professional end of the broadcasting industry, the talk is all about Ultra-HDTV. We expect the first announcements […]
Back on August 7th, a Russian rocket failed to deliver two satellites into orbit. Various boards of inquiry were set up, but the approval to resume launches has not yet been given which is a major worry for Mexico’s Satmex satellite operator. The exact same type of rocket is due to launch Satmex-8 later this […]
Here’s a conundrum: Pay-radio operator Sirius-XM is making very useful operating profits in its US division (and minority stakes in its Canadian operation also help out). Last week, Sirius-XM paid off $681 million of debt almost a year ahead of time, such is its sound financial position. John Malone shrewdly bailed the business out from […]
For the past three weeks, Jordanian TV channel JoSat has been dark, unavailable because of actions by an unnamed – but senior – figure. In a statement, reported by BBC Monitoring, the channel said it had worked hard at finding out who was responsible for ordering the Amman-based uplink centre to take the channel down, […]
The head of Russia’s leading rocket-making organisation has resigned. Vladimir Nesterov, 63, is leaving the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, which manufactures Russia’s Proton rockets, after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev harshly criticised the industry. A Proton rocket failed earlier this month leaving two broadcasting satellites in useless orbit. Russia’s reputation, such as it […]
The analysts and number-crunchers have looked at Sky Deutschland’s numbers and the consensus is overwhelmingly that the pay-TV broadcaster is pressing all the right buttons. Investment bankers Morgan Stanley comments are typical, saying the results (issued August 14th) “demonstrated growing consumer acceptance of pay TV in Germany with good growth in core pay TV and […]
The news from Unterföhring, near Munich, home of Sky Deutschland, was much, much better than expected. CEO Brian Sullivan, fresh from his annual holiday, used the clever device of delivering better results than the market forecast, and the old corporate mantra of under-promising and over-delivering has worked well for him and his team. While the […]
The consensus is that Sky Deutschland’s Q2 numbers, out August 14, will be solidly respectable and continue the gains of recent quarters. Investment banker Morgan Stanley reminds us that Q1’s numbers showed gross adds of 155,000 (net about 73,000) for the quarter-year, churn of some 10.8 per cent (annualised) and monthly ARPU of €31.76. For […]
There’s a huge amount of uncertainty over the precise state of the two satellites which failed to launch on Monday when a Russian Proton rocket suffered technical problems. The USA’s Strategic Command says 4 objects are in the same dangerous orbit. These are thought to be the Briz-M booster, a fuel tank, and the two […]
With commercial network broadcasting across Europe in the advertising doldrums (Spain and Italy in a state of near-collapse) it’s good to see a positive report on one broadcaster in the shape of Germany’s Pro7/Sat1 group. Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, suggests that Pro7 had a “strong performance in H1” and that […]
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Netflix makes £1m donation to NFTS
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