Advanced Television

Inside Satellite

Chris Forrester

Chris Forrester is one of the most experienced and highly regarded journalists in the field. His insight and analysis, particularly in the satellite and pay-TV arena, is highly prized. He has written for all the major business journals in the sector as well as several national newspapers.

SMPTE: “Trim the UHD codecs”

A paper by a trio of video experts says that video production equipment using different codecs and settings to balance competing requirements, such as trading off between bitrate and quality, and make video production life far too complicated. The introduction of UHD-TV and high dynamic range (HDR) adds to the number of codec implementations, making […]

May 13, 2021

SES and Intelsat appoint mediator

Intelsat’s bankruptcy court ordered that a mediator be appointed to try and find more common ground between the disputing pair. That has now happened. SES and Intelsat informed the court on May 11th that the two litigants met on April 29th and agreed both the appointment and scope of the referees authority. The two parties […]

May 12, 2021

Bank: No surprises expected in Eutelsat Q3

Eutelsat will report Q3 results after the market closes on May 11th. Analysts are not expecting too many surprises and most of Eutelsat’s key revenue divisions will be in negative territory other than Fixed Broadband. Investment bank Exane/BNPP, in a note to clients, says they expect group revenues from Eutelsat’s operating verticals to decline by […]

May 10, 2021

Virgin Orbit to lose space race with Bezos

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin/New Shephard rocket is scheduled to carry its first space tourist passengers on July 20th. The move means that Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will now be a very definite second place in the race to tap into space tourism. A note to clients from investment bank UBS says that Virgin Galactic […]

May 10, 2021

SES share buy-back boosts shares

The first-quarter results from satellite operator SES were buoyant, and helped by a commitment to buy in €100 millions-worth of its own shares for cancellation helped boost SES’s share price by almost 10 percent. At the end of the day the shares were up 9.3 per cent to – a still miserable in some eyes […]

May 7, 2021

Buy a seat on a Blue Origin rocket flight

Jeff Bezos is offering a seat on the debut passenger launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Those interested can bid for the solitary place. The flight is scheduled for July 20th and will be a globally publicised event, such is its importance. Blue Origin said: “We are offering one seat on this first flight […]

May 6, 2021

Eutelsat CEO: “OneWeb move makes sense”

Eutelsat’s CEO Rodolphe Belmer has explained in some detail why it made its move on OneWeb. Last week it announced it would place $550 million into OneWeb in return for a 24 per cent shareholding. The 24 per cent stake puts Eutelsat at an equal level as the two existing investors. Eutelsat will have 3 […]

May 4, 2021

Bank modifies Eutelsat outlook

This week Eutelsat confirmed it would invest $550 million in broadband constellation OneWeb in return for a 24 percent stake in OneWeb. Ratings agency Fitch has given a “BBB” rating for Eutelsat with a “Stable Outlook”. The ratings report comes as investment bank Exane/BNPP also slightly modified its view of the deal, saying: “This initial […]

April 30, 2021

SiriusXM: “The most profitable audio company”

Jennifer Witz, pay-radio broadcaster SiriusXM’s CEO, told analysts that the business was the most profitable audio company in the world, and that SiriusXM had achieved record low Q1 churn (of 1.6 percent) and helping revenue growth of 5 per cent and EBITDA up 7 per cent. “This was the highest single quarter EBITDA figure in […]

April 29, 2021

Bank: “Eutelsat can make OneWeb viable”

Eutelsat is taking a 24 per cent stake in OneWeb. Eutelsat’s fresh cash values OneWeb at $2.3 billion. However, Eutelsat is paying a significant premium to enter OneWeb. When the UK government and India’s Bharti Global invested their cash into OneWeb they placed their $500 million into the business and received 42 per cent of […]

April 28, 2021