Charlie Ergen’s EchoStar team managed to avoid a humiliating forced ending of its plans for a global S-band service when a tiny satellite successfully “brought into use” a set of International Telecom Union (ITU) frequencies ahead of an August 10th ITU deadline. This was the ‘third time lucky’ for EchoStar given that two previous attempts […]

SES saw an impressive jump in its share price on August 4th, up 8.96 per cent to €7.07 per share (and at one point hitting €7.13) helped by favourable analyst comments and a general air of optimism backed by solid results. Steve Collar told analysts that the decline in Video division revenues was easing (“flattening […]

Another clutch of legal Motions were filed on August 2nd to Intelsat’s bankruptcy court by both parties in the bitter dispute between SES and Intelsat. Lawyers for Intelsat filed their Motion for the court to dismiss the SES demand for Summary Judgement in the SES claim, which – in essence – is demanding a 50/50 […]

North American pay-radio operator SiriusXM has priced two batches of new Senior Notes. The borrowings will be used to redeem existing debt. The two amounts are: $1 billion of 3.125 per cent notes due for repayment in 2026, and $1.5 billion of 3.875 per cent notes due in 2031 “This represents an increase of $250 […]

India’s Space Research Organisation has confirmed it is in discussions with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Israel’s Space Agency (ISA) on cooperating and identifying projects where the organisations could work together. The Secretary in the Department of Space and ISRO Chairman K Sivan held virtual meetings with DG of ISA Avi Blasberger and DG […]

London-based Inmarsat says it is looking at launching its own low Earth orbiting (LEO) constellation of satellites. But there are concerns whether the company has the satellite frequencies needed to place satellites into orbit. Inmarsat is calling the new project Orchestra and is carrying out a market assessment of likely demand but says a fleet […]

Three sets of Intelsat-related court actions will come before the courts during August. August 18th will see the adjourned hearing on Intelsat’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy disclosure statement take place. It will take place at the US bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The hearing will focus on Intelsat’s bankruptcy reorganisation/exit scheme filed before […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has told SpaceX – and a few other would-be beneficiaries of its rural broadband largesse – that the cash it is prepared to award cannot be used to serve “parking lots and well-served urban areas”. Michael Janson, the FCC’s Rural Broadband Task Force director, has written directly to SpaceX as […]

Analysts at Berenberg Bank have praised Nordic Entertainment Group’s (NENT) Q2 results, saying the broadcaster’s subscription numbers “which stole the show”. While the company’s Q2/2021 sales of SEK3,072 million was in line with consensus, it was the subscriber numbers which impressed. Berenberg said: “The international subscriber outlook for 2021 increased to 500,000 from 250,000 as […]

A report from equity analysts at Berenberg Bank suggests an unclear future for the ITV/BBC BritBox streaming joint-venture. The bank says that Britbox is a “distraction that will not succeed”. The bank’s report makes blunt reading for the BritBox venture. “BritBox trends look weak: While the near-term picture on advertising looks clearly more positive, the […]