Charlie Ergen is currently involved in – at least – two bouts of serious litigation. There’s the Cablevision/VOOM case, which restarts on September 24th in New York, and 3,000 miles away in a Los Angeles courtroom Dish Network is defending its ‘Autohop’ ad-skipping service against an application for an injunction from Fox Television. Fox Television […]
Astro, Malaysia’s largest pay-TV operator, which controls some 50 per cent of the six million Malaysian TV households, launched the prospectus for its IPO, September 21, pricing the retail offering at RM3 (€0.76) a share, with shares already oversubscribed by more than 10 times. The oversubscription rate could well be higher, with the closing of […]
It is a story that simply won’t go away, and is trotted out regularly. But perennial gossip about a possible merger between arch pay-TV rivals DirecTV and Dish Network was given added fuel by a comment made at Friday’s Goldman Sachs’ Communicopia Conference by DirecTV’s CEO Michael White deserve attention. White told analysts that consolidation […]
Hong Kong-based AsiaSat is to sell off its broadband-by-satellite division Speedcast. Launched in 1999 SpeedCast has used AsiaSat satellite capacity to serve more than thirty Asian countries with broadband connectivity. TA Associates, a private equity firm, is financing the buyout. Terms were not revealed. SpeedCast says it has some 150 retail and wholesale partners, and […]
Canada’s MDA Corp has received another approval for its plan to buy satellite builder Space Systems/Loral. The latest stage sees MDA notified by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) that CFIUS had concluded its review of the proposed purchase of Space Systems/Loral, Inc. (“SS/L”) by a subsidiary of MDA and […]
SES has confirmed that Arianespace has re-scheduled the launch of its new satellite Astra 2F for September 28th. The satellite will be launched into space from the European Space Centre in French Guiana on board an Ariane 5 ECA rocket between 23:28pm and 00:05am (September 28-29, 2012 Central European Summer Time Astra 2F was built […]
Judge Richard Lowe, officiating over the Cablevision vs EchoStar legal action in New York, used a break in the case to tell the litigants to “engage in discussions” before the trial gets underway properly next week. The hearing was delayed because not enough jury members were empanelled. Cablevision is suing EchoStar for $2.4 billion, and […]
Last year Israel’s HOT cable MSO dropped CNN from its schedule replacing the US news channel with MSNBC’s service. Now DTH platform YES is following suit. YES says it is currently looking for an alternative news channel, which will require the approval of Israel’s Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Council. Local reports say CNN will go […]
Satellite operator Intelsat is raising $640 million in senior debt due for repayment in 2022. The cash will be used to pay off older debt as part of the $603 million due in 2016. The balance will be used to fund other corporate activity. The borrowings are made under its Intelsat Jackson Holdings subsidiary company. […]
Luxembourg-based SES has loaned a satellite to Thailand’s Thaicom. The move is seen as part of a possible wider co-operation with Thaicom. The SES satellite is NSS-5, which has been operating for most of its life at 20 degrees West, more or less over the Atlantic Ocean where its C and Ku-band payload provided a […]