Advanced Television

Inside Satellite

Chris Forrester

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.

BSkyB losing market share

BSkyB’s Q3 results, due on May 2nd, are likely to disappoint the market, says a client note from Berenberg Bank. The current quarter-year is expected to be “slow” in terms of customer acquisitions, and this includes broadband net additions which could slump (y-o-y) by as much as 50 per cent, says the bank.  It also […]

April 24, 2014

Japan petitions for NHK resignations

Seven citizen groups have submitted petitions to Japanese public broadcaster NHK demanding the resignation of the broadcaster’s president, Katsuto Momii as well as a couple of NHK directors. Almost 39,000 signatures were on the petitions, as well as a group from the influential Japan Congress of Journalists, are additionally threatening to withhold their annual licence […]

April 23, 2014

Failed Amazonas fall out

Amazonas 4A was launched on March 22nd (on an Ariane rocket with Astra 5B as its co-passenger). Unfortunately it soon emerged that the Hispasat-owned satellite was not working properly. Details are still sketchy but it seems the Orbital Sciences-built spacecraft had suffered a power subsystem malfunction which some sources suggest could be an undeployed solar […]

April 22, 2014

Satellite business model stays “strong”

A report to clients from analysts at Berenberg Bank, and based on a special satellite conference hosted by the bank last week, says that senior members of the management team from Eutelsat, SES and Inmarsat attended, as well as industry experts from MTM London and Northern Sky Research. Senior analyst Sarah Simon says that from […]

April 16, 2014

Nervous times for BSkyB

Last Friday saw a 10.5p (1.1 per cent) fall in BSkyB’s share price and continued the tumble over the past few weeks that has seen shareholder confidence ebb away. The recent falls, from £9.46 to £8.77 on anxieties over the likely price of the next auction round of English Premier League football costs, and last […]

April 14, 2014

Sky Deutschland prepping for Ultra-HD

“Ultra-HD broadcasting is the next stage for us on a journey of trying to use the new 4K technology. We started by testing what we could do inside the ground, with the cameras and could we get the cameras to talk to the Outside Broadcast trucks. Gradually we are building on that experience to try […]

April 11, 2014

“A new era” for SES

Last week saw Romain Bausch attend his final Board meeting as CEO at SES after some 19 years in the hot seat. He will remain on the company’s BoD but his departure prompted Berenberg Bank’s team to take a close look at what Sarah Simon described as a “new beginning” for the company. Simon admits […]

April 7, 2014

Sky Deutschland: “Don’t panic”

On March 31st Inside Satellite wrote encouragingly about Sky Deutschland despite also reporting the dramatic fall in the broadcaster’s share price.  On April 1st its share price recovered almost 6 per cent to €6.54, but still well down on the €8.13 price at the end of last year. But more confidence came on April 2nd […]

April 2, 2014

Sky Deutschland under pressure

Investors are anxious that Rupert Murdoch-backed Sky Deutschland may suffer a slowing of subscriber numbers. The past month or so has seen a significant fall in Sky Deutschland’s share price. Back on February 2nd its share price stood at €7.75. Today’s opening price was some €6.36. Last week investment bankers Morgan Stanley issued a note […]

March 31, 2014

BBC expert cites 4K as “next big thing”

BBC presenter and economics journalist Andrew Neil told delegates to the SES ‘Satellite Monitor’ event in London that Ultra HD “was the next big thing”. Neil was the founding chairman of Sky TV (in 1988) and was instrumental in the merger between Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting in 1990. An economist by training, he is […]

March 24, 2014