On April 28th we reported that certain commercial satellite launches were under threat of being cancelled because of the growing crisis with Russia in regard to the political situation in the Ukraine. In that story we specifically mentioned the upcoming launches of SES’s Astra 2G craft, plus a pair of satellites for London-based Inmarsat as […]
Arabsat’s board, meeting at its General Assembly in Tunis last week, has agreed to exempt Palestine from fees for access to Arabsat’s satellites. Palestine owes about $2 million in capacity fees, but the 37th meeting of the operator’s General Assembly of shareholders agreed to waive the debt. The Palestine Public Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts on several […]
Al Jazeera Media Network has submitted an official notification of dispute to the interim Egyptian government. The network says it is relying on a Bilateral Treaty signed between the country in which it is headquartered, Qatar, and Egypt as the basis for its decision. Al Jazeera has estimated losses of over $150 million. As per […]
European satellites have fallen foul of tougher US regulations on Russian rocket launches because of the Ukrainian political crisis. Satellites which have been built in the US, or have US-supplied components, have long been subject to ‘export’ controls under the USA’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) rules, although those requirements were increasingly seen as […]
Russian satellite television company NTV-Plus, a part of the Gazprom-Media holding company, is purchasing Red Media, a business that is producing 13 TV channels. BBC Monitoring is quoting Russia’s Interfax news agency for the report, which says Russia’s Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS) has approved the acquisition of 99.9 per cent of creative production outfit Red […]
A federal court in San Diego has awarded £283 million in damages to satellite broadband operator ViaSat in its patent action against Space Systems/Loral which built its ViaSat-1 craft. ViaSat had sued for double that sum. The jury took two weeks to deliberate and agree that Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) had infringed numerous ViaSat patents, and […]
The ‘power supply anomalies’ suffered by Hispasat’s Amazonas 4A satellite looks likely to affect 50 per cent of the craft’s working capacity and result in an insurance claim for about half of the satellite’s value, according to informed sources. The problem has been identified as being a failed power subsystem related to the supply of […]
Spacecom is Israel’s commercial satellite operator and operates a growing fleet of Amos craft. It has been up for sale, or for a joint-venture partnership, for some months. Madrid-based infrastructure company Abertis, which already has a minority shareholding in Eutelsat, has confirmed that it is looking to make an investment using its Hispasat (57 per […]
The past few days have seen a slew of rumours in the Arab world that – somehow or other – football-mad Arab fans would be able to see the upcoming FIFA World Cup out of Brazil free of charge. Arab fans had their expectations raised because of potential unencrypted transmissions from Eutelsat’s ‘Hot Bird’ satellites, […]
Millicom, the international telecommunications and media company, has announced that its operation in Bolivia will this week launch the company’s first DTH satellite TV service. The new DTH service from Tigo Bolivia coincides with the launch of its cable service in the country following the acquisition of the fixed-line company Multivision in 2013. The services […]