For the past three weeks, Jordanian TV channel JoSat has been dark, unavailable because of actions by an unnamed – but senior – figure. In a statement, reported by BBC Monitoring, the channel said it had worked hard at finding out who was responsible for ordering the Amman-based uplink centre to take the channel down, […]
The head of Russia’s leading rocket-making organisation has resigned. Vladimir Nesterov, 63, is leaving the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, which manufactures Russia’s Proton rockets, after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev harshly criticised the industry. A Proton rocket failed earlier this month leaving two broadcasting satellites in useless orbit. Russia’s reputation, such as it […]
The privately owned New York Times has appointed BBC DG Mark Thompson as the President and CEO to lead them to the digital age. It is the kind of ‘outside the box’ thinking only a private company can try; no public company would reach so far from ‘the norm’. For, while Thompson may come from […]
The analysts and number-crunchers have looked at Sky Deutschland’s numbers and the consensus is overwhelmingly that the pay-TV broadcaster is pressing all the right buttons. Investment bankers Morgan Stanley comments are typical, saying the results (issued August 14th) “demonstrated growing consumer acceptance of pay TV in Germany with good growth in core pay TV and […]
IHS Research reports that US pay-TV subs are being lost to Netflix users and other OTT providers. This is always an eye catching headline in our sector, and I confidently predict it will rise close to the top of our most-read parade in coming days. However, like a lot of similar reports, it is a […]
The news from Unterföhring, near Munich, home of Sky Deutschland, was much, much better than expected. CEO Brian Sullivan, fresh from his annual holiday, used the clever device of delivering better results than the market forecast, and the old corporate mantra of under-promising and over-delivering has worked well for him and his team. While the […]
The consensus is that Sky Deutschland’s Q2 numbers, out August 14, will be solidly respectable and continue the gains of recent quarters. Investment banker Morgan Stanley reminds us that Q1’s numbers showed gross adds of 155,000 (net about 73,000) for the quarter-year, churn of some 10.8 per cent (annualised) and monthly ARPU of €31.76. For […]
There’s a huge amount of uncertainty over the precise state of the two satellites which failed to launch on Monday when a Russian Proton rocket suffered technical problems. The USA’s Strategic Command says 4 objects are in the same dangerous orbit. These are thought to be the Briz-M booster, a fuel tank, and the two […]
With commercial network broadcasting across Europe in the advertising doldrums (Spain and Italy in a state of near-collapse) it’s good to see a positive report on one broadcaster in the shape of Germany’s Pro7/Sat1 group. Investment banker Morgan Stanley, in a note to clients, suggests that Pro7 had a “strong performance in H1” and that […]
Satellite giant Intelsat says its newly-launched EPIC high-throughput satellites have already taken $500 millions-worth of new business even though the satellites are not yet operational. The deals are fascinating, and include aircraft broadband services from Panasonic as well as valuable contracts from the likes of Harris CapRock and MTN Satellite Comms. The new Intelsat satellites […]