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.

No Sky Europe just yet, but what about Sky Global?

Credit Suisse, in a report to clients, suggests that while the English Premier League contracts are still up in the air the market can relax about any prospects of a ‘super-merger’ between BSkyB, Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. The original thought came from a report from UBS a few days ago. Indeed, the Credit Suisse […]

January 17, 2014

Satellite M&A expected in 2014

The London stock exchange has seen a dramatic improvement in the share price of BSkyB over the past few days (up 33p on Jan 14 to £8.71) as speculation mounts that Rupert Murdoch might be planning another method of consolidating 21st Century Fox’s stake into either a ‘Sky Europe’ or perhaps seeing a merger between […]

January 16, 2014

BSkyB: How much for Premier League rights?

Asked what are the three most important offerings of any pay-TV company and the response is usually, 1, premium sport, 2, premium sport and 3, premium sport. And the costs of supplying that premium content is the current headache for BSkyB faced with an extremely deep-pocketed challenger in the shape of BT Sport. The cash […]

January 14, 2014By Chris Forrester

Ultra-HD: “The chicken & egg are leaving now”

While there was much debate at CES about new Ultra-HD display products being magnificent, and that prices were steadily falling, there was also debate as to the missing programming and content leaving consumers with a ‘what comes first question: The chicken or the eEgg’? However, one continued strong supporter of Ultra-HD told delegates at a […]

January 13, 2014

Thai digital TV auction staggers regulator

It seems TV in Thailand is even more valuable than cellular licences. The December 25th auction of 24 new digital TV licences raised a staggering $1.55 billion, which was greater than that raised by a 3G telecoms licence in October 2012. The 20 successful bidders paid Thai Baht 50.62 billion, while the 3G licence went […]

January 2, 2014

Mediaset ‘merger’ plans examined

On December 19th Advanced-Television reported on a merger scheme between Italy’s Mediaset and its 43 per cent-owned Spanish Mediaset España operation. In particular the plan, if effected, would see merged Mediaset’s Italian ‘Premium’ business which operates via DTT and OTT, and its Spanish Digital + division which operates via satellite, cable and IPTV. Mediaset said […]

December 20, 2013

Coup for SES in RAI deal

SES has won a contract from Italian public broadcaster RAI to carry 4 of its HD channels on an Astra satellite from the SES ‘hot spot’ at 19. 2 degrees East. The deal is somewhat unexpected given that the channels are already available from arch-rival Eutelsat as part of its TivùSat ‘free-to-view platform. SES CCO […]

December 19, 2013

Satellite over-capacity fears overstated

The satellite industry has been concerned over the past year or two by the threat of over-supply of capacity. The African continent is one case in point where satellite bandwidth prices are sluggish indicating a surplus of competition not only from an assortment of satellite providers but by the growing links provided by fibre.  A […]

December 12, 2013

25 years ago multichannel TV came to Europe

SES launched Astra 1A on December 11th 1988, twenty-five years ago. While it took a few weeks for the satellite to be tested in orbit, the launch represented the first high-power satellite over Europe to be able to broadcast DTH signals to small domestic dishes. The satellite’s signals covered most of Europe, and over the […]

December 11, 2013

EPL: An extra £300m in sight from BT

The English Premier League (EPL) bosses must be rubbing their hands with glee, as will the club owners themselves at the thought of receiving millions extra for the sale of TV rights over the UK.  Remember, there is a fundamental difference in the upcoming TV rights auction: a bidder can pitch for ALL the rights, […]

December 6, 2013By Chris Forrester