The UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport has revealed findings of a study that suggests the impact of radio spectrum on the UK economy is worth more than £50 billion a year. The Analysys Mason study, commissioned by Government, found spectrum use was valued at £52 billion in 2011, an increase of 25 per […]
Canada-based space technology company MDA has wrapped its purchase of satellite builder Space Systems/Loral (SS/L). The deal, announced back in June, sees MDA pay $1.1 billion to SS/L’s owners Loral Space & Communications. The structure of the deal see MDA pay over $968 million in cash, and another $101 million to cover property assets. The […]
Satellite company Inmarsat posted a 5 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue, excluding its LightSquared partnership, helped by take-up of its broadband services by shipping customers globally. The company, which provides communications to shipping, aircraft and remote land locations, said it added 2,128 FleetBroadband terminals in the quarter, taking its installed base to 32,000. Inmarsat […]
Satellites, once launched, never return to Earth unless there’s some sort of catastrophe, but pay-radio operator had an unwanted satellite on its hands in the shape of its FM-4 satellite. It stayed on the ground as a spare craft in case of problems with the original trio launched into space to provide programming for the […]
Spain’s digital DTH platform Canal Plus, owned by media group Prisa TV, lost 50,785 TV subscribers over the course of 12 months, leaving 1,723,530 as of September 30th 2012. The company blamed “the weak economic situation and the increase of the VAT”. With an ARPU of €42 in the third quarter, Canal Plus is failing […]
Iran’s Ambassador to France has strongly criticised satellite operator Eutelsat for taking down his state-backed IRIB television and radio channels. Ambassador Ali Ahani met with Eutelsat’s CEO Michel de Rosen, and subsequently issued a statement. “Depriving millions of viewers and listeners of television and radio programs of different channels of the Islamic Republic of Iran […]
Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) and Space Systems Loral (SS/L) have received anti-trust approval to proceed with the take-over of SS/Loral by MDA. The Department of Justice decision helped Loral’s share price rise 2.58 per cent in after-hours trading on Friday evening to $75.15. The $875 million take-over by MDA of SS/L was announced […]
Official statistics out of Brazil show that DTH signals continue to grow rapidly, and added more than 3.5 million new subscribers over the past year. September’s net growth topped 277,000 new subs, according to Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL), and taking the nation’s DTH total (to September 30) to 15.1 million, and representing a 59.5 […]
Middle East satellite jamming has reached what one local broadcaster has described as “catastrophic” proportions. While Eutelsat and Intelsat have legitimately removed troublesome Iranian (IRIB) channels from their satellites, the jamming from within Iran and affecting incoming satellite feeds continues. The BBC, France 24, Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America are just some of […]
Eutelsat reported Q1 revenues up 6.5 per cent on the previous year, to €314.4 million, helped by impressive video revenue growth of 9.1 per cent. However, two less important profit centres were less buoyant. Its Data & Value Added segment (which is where Ka-Sat is deployed) grew only 2.5 per cent (although up 43.7 per […]