Advanced Television

DTH/Satellite

DTH revenues to overtake cable TV this year

Based on forecasts for 97 countries, global pay TV revenues (subscription fees and on-demand content) will climb to $203 billion in 2018, up by $19 billion on 2012. According to the Digital TV World Revenue Forecasts report the fast growth years for the sector are over, with annual growth hovering at below 2 per cent […]

June 19, 2013

Dish drops Sprint bid

SoftBank of Japan has stepped nearer to buying US wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp, as rival bidder Dish Network declined to make a new offer after SoftBank sweetened its own bid last week. SoftBank’s offer now stands at $21.6 billion. “We look forward to receiving the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and shareholder approvals which will […]

June 19, 2013

Arianespace to order 18 rockets

Arianespace speaking at the Le Bourget Paris airshow says it expects to buy 18 of the By Ariane heavy-lift satellite launchers this year. Newly appointed CEO Stephane Israel said Arianespace is also talking to the Russian government in order to extend the current scheme to use the French Guyana launch site to handle Soyuz medium-lift […]

June 19, 2013By Chris Forrester

Sea Launch wins Eutelsat order

Eutelsat 3B, currently being built by Astrium, will be orbited by the Sea Launch floating platform in April next year. The order is a major achievement for Sea Launch which has suffered some problems with its Zenit launch rocket. Eutelsat 3B will weigh some 6 tonnes at launch and serve Europe, Africa & the Middle […]

June 18, 2013

Fritz joins Eutelsat

Markus Fritz has joined Eulesat as Director of Commercial Development and Marketing, reporting to Jean-Francois Leprince-Ringuet, the Group’s Chief Commercial Officer. In this role, Fritz is responsible for further developing Eutelsat’s commercial strategy internationally, including market development and research, business intelligence, product management and pricing as well as marketing communications. He is also responsible for […]

June 18, 2013

APAC turns to Intelsat for expansion

Intelsat, a global provider of satellite services, has announced agreements with leading media customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong-based TVBI Company Limited (TVBI), the worldwide operating arm of Television Broadcasts Limited, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of Chinese-language programming, recently renewed a multi-year agreement on Intelsat 19. TVBI will use the […]

June 18, 2013

Bausch to step down from SES

Romain Bausch is to leave his president/CE position at SES next April. Bausch turns 60 next month and has been in position since 1995. He will remain a main board director at SES. His successor will be Karim Michel Sabbagh (49) and he will take over next April although will take up the ‘CEO Designate’ […]

June 17, 2013By Chris Forrester

Pay-TV maintains lead in TV market

Currently, the overall number of pay-TV subscriber households is estimated at around 804 million by MRG. Over 55 per cent of the total number of TV households (more than 1.42 billion) are subscribed to a pay-TV service. APAC represents the region with the most rapidly growing pay-TV base. Meanwhile, mature markets, North America and Europe, […]

June 17, 2013

Suitors line-up for Optus Satellite

The Australian press is full of reports as to who is likely to end up owning Singapore Telecom’s Optus Satellite fleet of 5 craft.  Hong Kong-based SingTel says it wants around $2 billion for the fleet, and there’s a deadline of June 21st for first bids to be submitted. Private equity investors in the form […]

June 17, 2013By Chris Forrester

Astro: Full HD STB conversion by year-end

Astro, Malaysia’s largest pay-TV operator, aims to complete the conversion of its customers’ legacy set-top boxes to the B.yond HD platform by the year-end, said chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan. “We saw over 64 per cent of customers during the first quarter subscribing to HD and other value-added services, which in turn drove up […]

June 17, 2013By Colin Mann