Advanced Television

Blogs

Al Jazeera soccer jamming – “a prank”

  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 […]

October 12, 2010

BBC protests too much

  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 […]

October 12, 2010

Al Jazeera ‘proof’ on Jordan on FIFA jamming

  The past few days have seen something of a tennis match of allegations and denials made over the illegal jamming of this past summer’s FIFA World Cup soccer matches for Arab viewers. Fans paid up to $150 for Al Jazeera Sport’s exclusive coverage of the tournament. However, many matches, including the final, were jammed […]

October 6, 2010

Inmarsat slips as Falcone cools

  London-based satellite operator Inmarsat is a global success story, but for the past year or two its share price has benefited from a perceived move towards consolidation by Philip Falcone, the US hedge-fund boss. His company, Harbinger Capital owns just under 30% of Inmarsat, and it had been thought that Falcone’s intentions were to […]

October 4, 2010

Russians plan Commercial space station

Having helped build up a generation of success and expertise from the existing International Space Station (ISS), the Russians want to go it alone and build the world’s first commercial space station. Russia’s Orbital Technologies and rocket company RSC Energia want to see their project in space by 2015-2016. An American venture, backed by Bigelow […]

September 30, 2010

‘Zombie’ craft may still interfere

Intelsat’s Galaxy 15 communications satellite, dubbed the “zombie satellite,” lost contact with its controllers in April but is stuck “on” and continues to transmit signals as its operators on Earth work to avoid potential interference with other nearby spacecraft.  Galaxy 15 passed Anik F2 without harm on Sept 9, which suggests that Intelsat’s engineers have […]

September 23, 2010

The pirates are losing, don’t hand them weapons

All in all it has been a good year for content protection. This time last year, the Pirate Party (an off shoot of Pirate Bay) was the ‘talk of the town’ with its’ high-profile stand for piracy and its’ success in Euro elections. This year the party fell well short of the threshold for the […]

September 22, 2010

TV piracy breakthrough in Lebanon

  Television (and other software) piracy is rampant in Beirut and the surrounding region, with thousands of ‘informal’ cables strung between the cities and towns illegally delivering the very best in pay-TV for just a few dollars a month. Barely a penny goes to the official rights’ holders. That may be changing. A deal was […]

September 22, 2010

James Bond’s new Indian accent?

  The Times of India summed up its take on the news that an Indian investor would be taking a major stake in the struggling MGM studio. “Mera naam hai Baand, James Baand”, is how Mr Bond’s introduction might work in Hindi. Whether the global entertainment community will be shaken or stirred by these reports […]

September 21, 2010

Egypt closes Orbit’s Cairo studios

Saudi Arabian newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabia is quoting local sources saying that Orbit has prevaricated over paying its rent at Egypt’s Media Production City (EMPC). Orbit is now part of the Orbit Showtime Network but still produces content for its Arabic channels. The Al-Quds newspaper says the decision to close Orbit down was made on Saturday […]

September 20, 2010By Chris Forrester