Having reported on the many challenges facing satellite operator Intelsat over this past year, it is refreshing to report a massive 11.5 per cent jump (35c) in its share price on April 19th, to $3.49.

Intelsat releases its quarterly numbers next week on April 28th, and perhaps investors are buoyed by the likelihood of good news. March 21st saw both Moody’s Investor Services and Standard & Poor’s downgrade Intelsat’s debt prospects, and stated that the satellite operator could default on some of its borrowings.

Certainly, the past few weeks have seen a slew of much-appreciated contracts, not least a recent renewal commitment from BBC Worldwide for carriage of its News channels around the world. As well as the BBC contract, Intelsat is also linking with Harmonic to launch an Ultra HD demo channel over North and South America.

On April 12th Intelsat signed up to be a debut anchor customer of Orbital ATK’s ‘satellite life extension vehicle’, a sort of orbiting rescue craft that will help extend the life of problem satellites.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. India stalls again on satellite licensing
2. Bank raises AST SpaceMobile target
3. AST SpaceMobile reaches $10bn market cap
4. China uses Galactic Energy ship to launch satellites
5. Battle royale for DTC over US
6. Analyst ups AST SpaceMobile guidance
7. Deutsche Bank stays negative on Eutelsat
8. India would-be sat-operators increasingly upset
9. Israel wants its own satellite constellation

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