Bloomberg is reporting that Denver-based EchoStar is discussing putting financing in place in order to improve its bid to acquire London-based satellite operator Inmarsat. Quoting people who are familiar with the bid, Bloomberg says that an improved offer could come in the next few days. Inmarsat rejected EchoStar’s initial bid on June 8th. Inmarsat is […]
Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN) is expanding into OTT in Western Europe for the first time by launching Film1, its premium pay movie service, as a Direct-to-Consumer subscription service, in the Netherlands. Film1, will now also deliver exclusive, first run films via a new OTT service where customers can watch over three hundred films on-demand, […]
Cable and radio broadcasters are formally asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for “much more information” on the Intelsat, Intel and SES proposals to restructure some of their C-band bandwidth for 5G services over the US. To date the FCC has made some extremely supportive noises about reallocating some of the satellite spectrum to speed […]
England’s World Cup win over Tunisia was the most-watched TV programme in the UK so far this year, attracting a peak television audience of 18.3 million on BBC One. The evening kick-off in Volgograd on June 18th, which had a 69.2 per cent audience share at its peak, beat May’s Royal Wedding. There were also […]
Spanish telco Telefónica has announced plans to intensify FTTH deployments in Latin America, replicating the Spanish model, during a meeting with investors in London. The head of Global Networks, Enrique Blanco, has said that the company will now focus on Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia in deploying FTTH networks once the deployment in Spain is […]
Greece’s National Council for Radio & Television (NCRT) has granted 5 permanent national transmission licences for the nation. A sixth licence will be awarded to TV Greece once terms for the broadcaster have been agreed. The decision means that Greece’s current eight national stations will be reduced to five (and a possible sixth). This has […]
According to a recent survey of consumers in the US, UK, Japan, Germany and Brazil, conducted by IHS Markit, the predominant uses of smart speakers revolve around asking questions, checking the weather, listening to news and playing music. About 65 per cent of survey respondents used their smart speakers for these functions in March and […]
A year ago in August 2017 London-based satellite operator Avanti Communications filed an action with the London Court of Arbitration for $16.8 million owed to it by Indonesia’s Defense Minsitry. Earlier this month, on June 6th, Avanti won its claim, plus interest, and the Indonesians were ordered by the court to pay Avanti $20.075 million, […]
Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) has confirmed the launch of four new key projects to support the development and deployment of 5G networks. The projects – “Spectrum and deployment efficiencies”, “Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) requirements for vertical industries”, “RAN convergence” and “Extreme long-range communications for deep rural coverage” – have been highlighted as […]