Both Eutelsat and Intelsat saw their latest satellites successfully launch on an Arianespace rocket August 20th. The double launch was the 67th successive success for Ariane from its spaceport at Kourou, in French Guiana. Importantly, both satellites are said to be in good shape following the lift-off. Eutelsat’s 8 West B craft was the heavier […]
DirecTV has unveiled its new ‘Genie’ box, the Genie Mini, which permits users of any 4K set to rent 4K movies and documentaries from the broadcaster. “Customers who want the best picture quality are creating more demand for 4K,” said DirecTV’s SVP/Consumer Premise Engineering Henry Derovanessian. “The new 4K Genie Mini allows us to meet that demand by […]
Responding to recent functionality enhancements to Netflix’s UI, Sky has unveiled updates to Sky+HD boxes introducing what it describes as some clever new features which make Sky Movies even better. This, the third software update so far this year, forms part of Sky’s continued commitment to innovating the UK’s biggest connected TV platform, Sky+. With […]
In perhaps an indication of North American pay-TV operators seeing a silver lining in the cloud that is the decline of their current subscriber numbers, findings from Strategy Analytics suggest the
Fraudsters who illegally sold on access to Premier League football coverage have been jailed following a joint investigation by Surrey Police and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). Simon Hopkins and Leon Passlow were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on August 19th having earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud between January 2008 and […]
Two major satellite launches are on schedule for lift-off on August 20th from Arianespace’s facility in French Guiana. Eutelsat 8 West and Intelsat’s I-34 have been placed inside the giant Ariane 5’s rocket fairing, and the pre-launch technical review took place on August 18th in readiness for launch. Launch window timings, subject to the usual […]
Asian satellite operator AsiaSat has reached an agreement with in-flight entertainment and connectivity service provider Aircom Pacific for using AsiaSat’s transponder capacity and uplinking services. Under the agreement, Aircom Pacific will use Ka-band and Ku-band capacity on AsiaSat 7 and AsiaSat 8 to deliver its in-flight entertainment and connectivity services for airlines flying routes over […]
London-based satellite operator Avanti Communications has issued an £80 million (€113m) financial bond (Senior Secured Notes) to help fund future satellite activity. Avanti specialises in providing bandwidth over Europe and Africa. Avanti stated some months ago that it would be raising extra cash in order to pay for a new satellite, Hylas-4. The satellite is […]
Adding its own findings to the growing evidence of cord-cutting besetting US pay-TV providers, Leichtman Research Group has found that the thirteen largest pay-TV providers in the US – representing about 95 per cent of the market – lost about 470,000 net video subscribers in Q2 2015, compared to
Cisco is in the process of releasing ‘Thor’, not a new ‘super-hero’ or even a new satellite from Telenor, but what will eventually be a new codec. ‘Thor’ is intended to be a complete replacement for the cluster of complex patents covering the improved compression offered by HEVC and MPEG-LA and HEVC-Advance solutions, which Cisco […]