Advanced Television

SES

SES bosses do well out of C-band deal

CEO Steve Collar and seven other senior executives at SES have been awarded attractive bonuses as a result of securing the first $1 billion in FCC incentive payments for clearing C-band frequencies over the US. The news emerged in the SES Annual Report which was adopted and approved by the SES Annual general Meeting on […]

April 11, 2022By Chris Forrester

Shortage of Antonov aircraft will hurt satellite deliveries

The images of a destroyed Antonov aircraft (registered number An-225), and one of the planet’s very largest aircraft, went around the world showing it destroyed in a hanger at an airfield near Kyiv. Its loss will have an immediate impact on the delivery of some urgently needed satellites. AN-225, dubbed Mriya (Dream) was blown to […]

April 11, 2022By Chris Forrester

SES reach rises to 366m homes

Satellite operator SES, in its latest Satellite Monitor global reach survey, says it is now delivers almost 8,400 TV channels – including 3,130 in HD or UHD – to a total of 366 million TV homes worldwide, an increase of five million homes over the previous year. SES says it continues to outperform the industry […]

April 5, 2022By Chris Forrester

French Senate eyes tougher plurality rules

French broadcasting rules and obligations are probably the toughest in Europe, and are likely to become even more rigid. The French senate has published a report on media concentration, which some observers say was prompted by the merger proposals between TF1 and M6 and the Vivendi take-over bid of Lagardère. A report to clients from […]

April 4, 2022

SES extends contract with QVC

Home shopping channels from QVC have signed a multi-year contract renewal with satellite operator SES for viewers in the UK and Ireland. The companies have announced a five-year contract renewal to broadcast the company’s QVC, QVC Beauty, QVC Extra and QVC Style channels over SES’s 28.2 / 28.5 degrees East satellites. As part of the […]

April 4, 2022By Chris Forrester

Intelsat: C-band transition update

Intelsat has updated the FCC with its final report on its C-band transition. One of the 601-page document’s major elements its listing each of its clients and their Earth stations and which of them elected to take cash from Intelsat for their local filter work instead of allowing Intelsat to undertake the tasks. “Undertaking the […]

April 1, 2022

US to boost satellite communications budget

US President Joe Biden, in his plans for next year, shows a potential increase in the US space budget for defence and satellite communications. While the overall budget grows by 2 per cent, the amount suggested for the US Space Force is upped by 26 per cent. A report from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that […]

March 30, 2022

SES buys new satellite from Thales

SES is buying what will be SES-26, a new ultra-sophisticated software-defined satellites from Thales-Alenia Space. The craft will replace NSS-12 at 57 degrees East and serve what SES describes as “hundreds of millions” across three continents. SES-26 will maintain and expand the range of content delivery and connectivity services to broadcasters, media companies, telco operators, […]

March 28, 2022By Chris Forrester

Fitch: GES acquisition Neutral for SES rating

SES’s (BBB/Stable) planned acquisition of DRS Global Enterprise Solutions (GES), provider of commercial satellite communications to the US government, will have no impact on SES’s ratings, Fitch Ratings says. SES announced March 21st that it had entered into an agreement with Leonardo DRS, a US subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A. (BBB-/Stable), to acquire GES for $450 […]

March 24, 2022

Bank approves SES’s DRS acquisition

On March 21st satellite operator SES announced it was buying governmental solutions business DRS Global Enterprise Solutions (GES), a US subsidiary of Italian Leonardo DRS. The $450 million (€408.8m) move has been analysed by investment bank Exane/BNPP which believes there is a “strong strategic rationale” behind the acquisition. Leonardo Chief Executive Alessandro Profumo said the […]

March 24, 2022