Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
There was a telling comment made following OneWeb’s Chapter 11 announcement, and it concerns the all-important cost of user terminals. While rockets were being sent up by OneWeb and still are by SpaceX (a Starlink flight was scheduled for April 16th but is now delayed). But Samer Halawi, now EVP/CCO at Intelsat and who worked […]
Would-be satellite constellation operator OneWeb is looking for the UK government to provide it with a rescue loan. OneWeb Global has also secured $75 million of fresh cash from its main backer, Japan’s SoftBank despite SoftBank’s own loss-making situation. SoftBank on April 13th reported losses of $12.5 billion overall, and that its ‘Vision Fund’ subsidiary […]
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