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.
Last October Intelsat made a $50 million “synergistic” loan to BlackSky, owned by Spaceflight Industries. Now it wants the Court to amend the loan obligations and permit certain sales plans to proceed despite the bankruptcy. Spaceflight describes itself as a ‘next generation’ space company with launch facilities, and its BlackSky division specialises in images from […]
Notwithstanding the financial challenges head – and a string of bankruptcies from those pushing for satellite mega constellations – Ottawa-based Telesat is asking US regulators to approve a significant expansion of its planned 209-craft constellation. Now it wants 1671 satellites. Earlier this week it was reported that OneWeb, despite being in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, […]
A report to clients from investment bank Berenberg says that Eutelsat’s cash-flow stability remains undervalued and underappreciated. It has issued a “BUY” note to investors and gives a target price of €13,30 (Eutelsat’s current share price is about €9.25). Berenberg says Eutelsat’s core broadcast business – representing over 60 per cent of revenues – remained […]
Intelsat, despite its bankruptcy process, has launched CellBackhaul over the US for 4G and 5G mobile network operators. This is good news for the company and users as it will help provide coverage to the rural and suburban regions of the US with little or no access to mobile broadband. Intelsat says it is providing […]
OneWeb, despite its bankruptcy, wants to pay special incentive bonuses to its few remaining staff in order to hold onto their skills during and perhaps beyond the bankruptcy process. But the US Trustee is objecting strongly. In a filing to the Court the Trustee reminds Judge Robert Drain that OneWeb paid out “large bonuses…shortly before […]
OneWeb, now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has asked the court handling the process to permit incentive payments to retained staff of up to $8.8 million in order to hold onto those key workers during the bankruptcy process. OneWeb slashed its workforce from 531 to just 74 a few days ahead of the bankruptcy, and […]
Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) reported that at its AGM on May 19th, shareholders voted to approve a 10 per cent repurchase of the company’s shares. NENT operates video streaming services for its pan-Nordic customers on its Viaplay and Viafree as well as pay-TV platform Viasat. Its holdings include several free-to-air TV channels including TV3 Sweden, […]
The bankruptcy and sell-off of mega-constellation OneWeb’s assets has become extremely interesting. Analysts at Quilty Analytics were on the case and suggesting that the auction now has 30 interested parties having signed NDAs, and that with Chinese, British, French and US interests involved it is turning into a real-life Game of Thrones. Indeed, Quilty says […]
In essence, SES has always been enthusiastic about UHD. The format would represent an increased demand in bandwidth and would help provide valuable revenues over and above the somewhat shrinking – and digitally compressed – market that is Standard and High Definition transmissions. As UK country manager Mike Chandler and SES’ Market & Business Analyst […]
High Altitude Platform Services – or stratospheric balloons – are a key part of Google’s broadband-to-the-planet policy. Earlier this year a group of telecoms, aviation and technology companies, including Japan’s SoftBank and Alphabet Loon (the Google spin-off business looking after its balloon strategy) formed the HAPS Alliance. The concept is simple: Float a series of […]
Report: Brand risk spikes 59% during major sporting events
Magnolia content deal with Samsung TV Plus in US
Research: Prime Video leads SVoD ad tiers in US
Max announces further European launches in June
Disney, Comcast call in Hulu ref
Report: Positive momentum in SEA premium VoD sector
Forecast: Operators to increase cloud network investmests
Research: More Swedish homes choosing streaming with ads
Research: 3m SVoD accounts shared in the Nordics
Eutelsat mulls teleport options