A fault at a South African satellite tracking station has forced International Launch Services to delay launching a Sirius-XM satellite for at least 24 hours. The craft, Sirius-FM6, was due to be launched on a Proton rocket late on October 20th. The 6.6 tonne satellite is now rescheduled to blast off late on Monday evening […]
Paris-based Eutelsat is reportedly facing an unexpected tax bill of an extra €27 million, according to a report in French news magazine L’Express. The tax hit follows on from an audit of trading years 2009-2011 by the French tax authorities who were focused on a Eutelsat subsidiary in Madeira which enjoyed tax-free status until 2011, […]
BSkyB unveiled a strong set of numbers for its first quarter-year’s results with plenty of highlights to keep the market happy. Top line headlines included revenues up 7 per cent (to £1.843 million) and 800,000 new paid-for ‘subscription products’ which is a 50 per cent uplift on a year ago. Sky enjoyed 111,000 new broadband […]
Satellite operator SES has borrowed €500 million by way of a 5 year bond. Proceeds will be used to pay down existing debt. The borrowing, at 1.875 per cent, is the lowest-ever charge in the company’s history, which reflect both the current state of the debt market and also confidence in SES. SES said “The […]
SES has announced today that one of the leading commercial broadcasters in Japan, Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), chose SES as its satellite operator of choice to provide live transmissions of three key sporting events in Europe. The capacity contracted on board SES’ Astra 3B satellite was utilised for the contribution of the World Wrestling […]
Hispasat’s Amazonas 4A satellite, built in a near-record 18 months, will launch this December and earlier than first anticipated. The launch will be on an Arianespace rocket and the satellite will be orbited at 61 degrees West. The satellite will provide much-needed extra capacity over the Americas and help provide bandwidth for next year’s FIFA […]
Spacecom, operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, has announced that AMOS-5 has won a five-year deal worth $5.9 million for providing broadcast services to an East African video service provider. The customer will use capacity on AMOS-5 to provide both DTT and DTH operations for a digital migration project taking place in the region. Transmitting […]
FTA Television has confirmed its position as the preferred media of Italians, with over 96 per cent of adults stating they have watched free-to-air TV in the previous week, according to a study on media consumption and advertising expenditure prepared by eMarketer, in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group Italia. However, pay viewing on satellite and […]
European adult entertainment specialist Private Media Group is to launch a new adult entertainment channel — PrivateTV — later in October. The international version of the channel will be available on Eutelsat Hot Bird 13B while a French language version, PrivateTV France, with substantial original short-form French language programming, will be available separately. Private´s CEO […]
A Cairo satellite Earth station, used to send signals up the satellites in the region, was hit by a rocket attack on October 7th. The blast, in the exclusive Ma’adi district of Cairo, hit a telecoms facility. The rocket attack damaged some of the satellite uplink dishes at the site which is within a mile […]