Advanced Television

DTH/Satellite

Viewers up, profits flat at Telenor

Telenor Satellite Broadcasting’s (TSBc) latest numbers (Q2, to June 30th) show that while its 1 degree West orbital slot is now delivering programming to a record 8.8 million homes, and with “strong and stable” DTH penetration for one of its Central European ‘anchor’ client, UPC, EBITDA revenues fell. TSBc say that the EBITDA decrease is […]

July 23, 2013By Chris Forrester

Zuku on SES-5

SES has confirmed that the East African pay-TV broadcaster Zuku TV will complete its migration on the SES fleet by the end of July 2013 and has committed to growth capacity on the new satellite. Zuku TV, part of Wananchi Group Holdings, is East Africa’s leading home entertainment operator, with a substantial and growing customer […]

July 23, 2013

SES: 2013 guidance at risk

One of the risks with any satellite operator is that its satellite launch timetable somehow or other goes pear-shaped. And Luxembourg-based SES is suffering a high degree of launch uncertainty just at the moment, and delays are not helping in its own revenue expectations. Banker Morgan Stanley, for example, in a note to clients on […]

July 22, 2013By Chris Forrester

Fashion TV selects SatLink for Asia distribution

SatLink Communications, a global teleport, content management and HD playout services provider, has announced it has been selected by global channel, Fashion TV (FTV), to playout, uplink and stream its HD channel onto AsiaSat 5. FTV feeds live content to 193 countries across the world and will be utilising SatLink’s Playout, Digital Archival and uplink […]

July 22, 2013

Proton disaster: Official report

It is now officially acknowledged that the July 2nd catastrophic failure of a Proton-M rocket was caused by the insertion of crucial sensors upside-down.  The mistake affected three of six yaw angular velocity sensors on the unmanned rocket, said deputy head of Roscosmos, Alexander Lopatin, citing a state commission’s investigation of the crash in a […]

July 19, 2013

Bahamas pirating DirecTV signals

The leading Bahamas satellite TV provider is in court accused of pirating DirecTV’s signals on the island. Satellite Bahamas is accused of having 5800 local accounts and alleged to have used an elaborate scheme to illegally obtain DirecTV’s signals. The court case is being heard in Florida. The court has been asked to attach a […]

July 18, 2013By Chris Forrester

Mexico orders Satmex-9 from Boeing

Satelites Mexicanos has ordered a new satellite from Boeing. Satmex-9 will have 48 Ku-band transponders and use Boeing’s well-established 702HP model. Satmex-9 will be co-located with the operator’s existing Satmex-8 craft, and as part of a larger block order placed with Boeing. The new satellite will be ready for launch in late 2015, and the […]

July 18, 2013By Chris Forrester

SES: Risk of satellite over-capacity

The supply of new satellites, and the bandwidth expansion that flows from so-called ‘high-throughput satellites’ such as Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat, suggests to investment bank Morgan Stanley that there could be a serious over-supply of new capacity in the business. Indeed, the bank’s report on Luxembourg-based SES also suggests that the operator might fall short of its […]

July 17, 2013By Chris Forrester

Timing is right for satellite broadband in EU

The European Union’s Digital Agenda calls for every citizen and business to have access to broadband that provides at least 2 megabits per second by 2013. Today that’s largely possible. In fact more than 99 per cent of the population of the EU can get ten times that. “Now that twenty megabit bandwidths are commonly […]

July 16, 2013

Indovision signs SES capacity deal

SES and MNC Sky Vision, the Indonesian satellite pay-TV provider with its brand Indovision, have announced an agreement to provide capacity on the SES-7 satellite to support Indovision’s future Chinese-language DTH package. The multi-transponder and multi-year deal provides Indovision with access to the Ku-band capacity aboard SES-7 at the prime orbital location of 108.2 degrees […]

July 16, 2013