August 24th saw Round 15 of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) wireless spectrum auction, and typically add $650 million (€575.8bn) per round as bidders upped their bids during the day to reach a total of $16.3 billion. The FCC is now holding 3 bidding rounds per day and each saw a typical $400-$500 million added […]
ITV has aborted plans to buy Entertainment One, the owner of Peppa Pig. The broadcaster said in a stock market statement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire eOne because the two companies could not agree on a price to begin negotiations. The withdrawal comes a fortnight it emerged that eOne had turned down […]
Google has hired a former ViaSat/WildBlue senior executive, Tom Moore, to head up its Project Loon high-altitude broadband balloons which are intended to deliver internet services to poorly-served areas of the world. Project Loon is part of Google’s ‘X’ research and development division, and as well as ‘Loon’ also has people working on Google’s driverless […]
Paywizard, the specialist in subscription, billing and CRM for pay-TV, has announced the appointment of Andrew Wyse as Senior Vice President Global Sales, along with a new sales partnership that brings a number of full-time salespeople onto its US team. The moves bolster Paywizard’s efforts to extend its position in key markets and new regions, […]
A Luxembourg-based offshoot of Beijing-based Xinwei Group has bought Spacecom of Israel (Space Communications), operators of the AMOS fleet of satellites of $285 million (€252.7m), an impressive premium of 41 percent on the stock market valuation. In a somewhat complicated three-way transaction Spacecom will ‘merge’ with Luxembourg Space Telecommunications (itself a subsidiary of Beijing Xinwei […]
There are a couple of satellite builders looking to build ‘rescue tugs’ in order to provide help for ailing satellites. Now DARPA (the USA’s Defense Research Projects Agency) is looking to set standards and practices for future on-orbit satellite servicing. Most of the world’s major satellite operators are looking at contracting with one or other […]
Entertainment and communications technology specialist ARRIS International has appointed Bruce McClelland as Chief Executive Officer effective September 1st. McClelland also was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors effective the same date. Bob Stanzione will become ARRIS Executive Chairman in addition to continuing to serve as Chairman of the Board of the Company. “Since […]
Eurofins Digital Testing, a global player in end-to-end quality assurance (QA) and testing services (formerly Testronic Labs Belgium and Digital TV Labs), has acquired Labatus, to strengthen its ability to help accelerate and reinforce deployment of multiplatform TV and video services for operators around the globe. Financial terms were not disclosed. Labatus offers automated test […]
US trade group the Computer & Communications Industry Association has submitted a white paper to the FCC that offers a way to bridge the gap between the FCC’s plan to bring competition to TV set-top boxes and its opponents. According to the CCIA, the alternative apps plan offered by the cable industry and others would […]
It’s a scheme that’s guaranteed to give a highly-personalised Virtual Reality experience from some hundreds of kilometres out in space. SpaceVR has raised some crowd-funding cash to start building Overview-1, a specially designed satellite that will be launched next June up to the International Space Station (on a scheduled CRS-12 mission) where it will then […]