Advanced Television

Double dilemma for Intelsat

Intelsat’s shares had a torrid time May 5th with a 12.4 per cent fall in value at one point to just $1.10. It isn’t the lowest that Intelsat shares have traded recently ($1.04 on April 15th) but it highlights the anxiety the market has for the company’s future prospects. One shareholder (Cyrus Capital Partners) is […]

May 6, 2020

Telesat going ahead with LEO project

Ottawa-based Telesat is still planning to launch a constellation of almost 300 Low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites despite the recent bankruptcies of OneWeb and LeoSat. However, the ultra-cautious satellites operator (which has fleets of Anik, Telstar and Nimiq craft in orbit) is somewhat slower in getting orders placed for the construction of this new LEO […]

May 4, 2020

Bank examines European FTA

Four major European Free to Air broadcasters – Atresmedia, Mediaset Espana, TF1 and RTL – have declared their quarterly results in recent days. Investment bank Exane/BNPP says that these Q1 numbers show that the TV ad market has performed much better in Germany (-4 to -4.5 per cent) than France (-12 per cent) and says […]

May 1, 2020

“Double upgrade” for ProSiebenSat.1

Generally there’s been nothing but doom and gloom for Europe’s commercial TV broadcasters, but investment bank Exane/BNPP has issued a “double upgrade” on Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 to “Outperform”. The bank says that last week’s announcement from ProSiebenSat 1 of a 40 per cent decline in TV ad-revenue for April the broadcaster’s shares “barely budged”. The bank’s […]

April 29, 2020

The only way is up for satellite shares

Just about every single player in Quilty Analytics ‘Satellite and Space’ sectors is suffering depressed share prices – largely as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic – and in many cases dramatically so. There has already been fall-out with OneWeb and Speedcast entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Other hard-hit players, such as the In-Flight Communications […]

April 28, 2020

Bank: “Netflix a long-term winner”

Analysts at MoffettNathanson (MN) have inevitably admitted that the longer the current pandemic situation lasts, the bigger the benefit to Netflix, as both linear and OTT competitors will eventually be unable to debut new original content. “In addition, given the looming negative impacts to advertising, movie theatre attendance and cord-cutting, traditional content owners will be […]

April 23, 2020

Video games sector benefitting from lockdown

A detailed report from investment bank Exane/BNPP says that while commercial TV across Europe is suffering evaporating revenues because of the coronavirus, the video games sector is expected to continue outperforming in the current environment. The video games sector is “benefitting from attractive underlying sector trends, increased player engagement during lockdown, likely resilience during a […]

April 22, 2020

SES must “credibly end its downgrade cycle”

A note to clients from analysts at investment bank Jefferies is blunt as far as satellite operator SES is concerned. While giving the company a severe downgrade from a target share price of €26 to just €16, the bank reminds investors that SES itself has lowered its full year 2020 (to December 31st) revenue guidance […]

April 20, 2020

Intelsat’s Chapter 11 focus

Intelsat has yet to formally apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and undoubtedly its situation is precarious and thus highly fluid although a bankruptcy restructuring is now widely expected given that it has declined to make interim interest payments on a 2024-due bond and has used a permitted 30-day delay in making the payment. Intelsat is […]

April 17, 2020

Dish Network facing huge obstacles

Charlie Ergen, co-founder of Dish Network and the EchoStar family of business, might just have badly timed his latest venture. Analysts at MoffettNathanson (MN) aptly described Ergen’s position a “petri dish” of challenges, saying that Ergen’s entry into the pre-paid wireless business would have been challenging even under the best of circumstances. These aren’t the […]

April 16, 2020