Advanced Television

DTH/Satellite

Astra and Amazonas flight date confirmed

French rocket company Arianspace says that it will launch the delayed Amazonas-4A and Astra 5B satellites on March 21st.  The two satellites were originally expected to launch on December 6th last year, and then delayed to March 7th. The giant Ariane 5ECA is scheduled to lift off in the late afternoon of March 21st with […]

February 25, 2014By Chris Forrester

SES set to be No 1, and very ready for 4K

Luxembourg-base SES is already carrying more than 6230 satellite channels, some 18 per cent of the world’s total channels (35,000), and this year – if its forecasts are reasonably accurate – the operator will overtake Intelsat as the world’s largest satellite business measured by revenues. The reason is that Intelsat is very dependent on so-called […]

February 24, 2014

StarTimes in spat with MultiChoice

Local reports from central Africa state that Chinese-backed pay-TV operator Star Times is accusing MultiChoice’s local operator in Rwanda is “interfering” with Star’s digital terrestrial transmission signals. MultiChoice’s local operator, GOtv, went live last month but StarTimes is now alleging that its shared multiplex with GOtv is seeing GOtv exceed authorised power levels. Rwanda’s New […]

February 24, 2014By Chris Forrester

Serbia’s pink TV to launch with 100 channels

TV Pink, a new DTH operator based in Serbia, will launch with more than 100 channels, according to local reports. It is targeting to be on air this autumn, and a launch date of September 20th has been set. The plan talks about 50 ‘Pink’ thematic channels and another 50 drawn from popular channels already […]

February 24, 2014By Chris Forrester

Dish increases profits

US satellite TV provider Dish Network reported $807 million of net income attributable to the company in 2013, a 26.8 per cent increase from last year’s $637 million. Total revenue for 2013 was $13.9 billion, compared with $13.2 billion in 2012, up by 5.5 per cent. With the closure of its remaining Blockbuster retail stores […]

February 21, 2014

SES: ‘Roll on 2014’

Let’s be clear. SES CEO Romain Bausch didn’t say “roll on 2015” as he delivered the satellite operator’s 2013 end of year numbers. But 2014 should see fewer satellite delays, a reinforced position in fast-developing markets, a new income stream from its O3b data and broadband constellation, and recent investment that starts to pay back. […]

February 21, 2014By Chris Forrester

SES attacks Latino markets

Luxembourg-based satellite giant SES is to create new capacity for the Latin American market. It is ordering SES-10, a new satellite which will serve the region – including the Caribbean – from 67 degrees West in an orbital slot negotiated with the Andean Community. It will launch in 2016. SES-10 will be built by Astrium […]

February 20, 2014By Chris Forrester

Intelsat’s $10bn backlog falls back

Intelsat has reported that Q4 revenues fell from $672.3 million in 2012 to $642.8 million in the three months to December 31st. The operator’s full year revenue also fell, from $2.61 billion in 2012 to $2.603 billion last year. Intelsat’s contracted backlog also fell back from $10.3 billion (as at September 30th 2013) to $10.1 […]

February 20, 2014By Chris Forrester

Nilesat bans Muslim Brotherhood channels

Cairo-based Nilesat, in a caption aired at 14.00 GMT on February 18th on state-run Nile News TV, says: “We will not allow for the return of the Brotherhood’s channels because they violate [our] media code of action”. The Muslim Brotherhood is said to be behind Misr 25, already closed down. Another channel, London-based Al-Hiwar was […]

February 19, 2014By Chris Forrester

Outdoor HD joins MEASAT Neighborhood

MEASAT Satellite Systems has announced a three year agreement with Globecast and Outdoor Channel for distribution on the MEASAT-3 satellite. Under the terms of the agreement, MEASAT will distribute Outdoor HD via MEASAT-3’s global C-band beam, covering 102 countries from Asia, Australia, Middle East, Europe and Africa. Outdoor Channel (Asia) is a channel that features […]

February 19, 2014