On Oct 29 Eutelsat declared its W3B satellite – launched a day earlier – as a “total loss”. The satellite operator was expected to deliberately de-orbit the satellite into the Pacific Ocean within hours. Now it has emerged that the satellite is to be maintained in orbit. The satellite is now expected to orbit for […]

  Transition, disruption, opportunity, threat; all descriptions that can be applied to most digital media developments. Which one you choose will depend on where you, or your company, sit in the current ecosystem and, therefore, your perspective. Recently we held a video roundtable on OTT Services (available on the site now); a classic major development […]

    Egypt is getting tough with some contentious channels and, meanwhile, there’s some highly vocal Arab criticism that ordering channels off  Nilesat is directly linked to upcoming presidential elections in Egypt. ‘Not so’, implies Nilesat’s chief engineer Salah Hamza. “We have no formal regulator covering satellite transmission. There is no Ofcom, no FCC, no […]

SES says that all its revenue and core profit metrics are being maintained. Indeed, its year-on-year quarterly results are most impressive, with this latest quarter’s revenues up 11.4 per cent on 2009’s numbers. However, SES managed to exclude business from its ND Satcom subsidiary, which it sold earlier this week, in its 9-month results announcement […]

There have been plenty of headlines in the UK suggesting that Ofcom has “approved” YouView, the BBC-backed video-on-demand service. “Not so,” implies Tony Ballard, a media lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis. Ofcom has said that any investigation now would be “premature” because it was part of an emerging sector, its impact too unclear at this […]

Seems a weird thing to wonder when Apple recently became the second biggest company on the Dow by stock value, but could this be the high water mark? Apple has out powered all contenders by repeating its trick of game-changing UI’s (remember the Apple Mac GUI that started the whole thing) and allying it with […]

Intelsat’s uncontrolled Galaxy-15 craft is still posing a threat to broadcasting satellites which are in its path. Galaxy-15 was probably affected by a solar flare back in April and cannot be controlled from the ground. It is drifting steadily – and predictably – along an orbital arc and while there is little chance of collision […]

This Friday, October 22nd, BSkyB will unveil its Q1 results and a few hours later hold its AGM for the trading year that ended June 30th. It is also likely that James Murdoch, currently chairman of the broadcaster will comment on News Corp’s wish to take full ownership of BSkyB; News Corp currently holds 39.1 […]

  The soccer jamming squabble between Qatar’s Al Jazeera Sports and Jordanian broadcasting authorities has already stretched diplomatic relations between the two regions. Comments have bounced back and forth between the two nations, and there seems to be no doubt that the jamming occurred from within Jordanian territory. Now a local newspaper has suggested that […]

  Here in the UK a band of rival media owners have written to the Business Secretary, the Lib Dem Vince Cable, urging him to intervene to stop News Corp taking full control of BSkyB should it proceed with its bid. The letter says News Corp ownership of Sky alongside its existing ownership of The […]