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.

300 MHz to be freed by FCC?

A report from analysts at New Street Research says that the FCC will rule in November on the C-Band Alliance’s (CBA) proposal to reassign 180 MHz of C-band spectrum for use over the US in the thrust to boost 5G adoption. The report, however, says the FCC “will likely” vote to free up 300 MHz […]

August 29, 2019

Will Love Nature start UHD rush?

Sky will start offering programming from Love Nature, the all-4K channel which is owned by Canada-based Blue Ant Media, later this year the channel will broadcast as part of Sky’s ‘on demand’ service and to UK, Germany and Italian subscribers. However, with precious few UHD channel transmissions available, will this move start something of a […]

August 23, 2019

Mediaset merger unlikely?

Italian broadcasting giant Mediaset has been looking to merge with its Spanish arm, Mediaset Espana. The plan was that the merger would be a step forward in its wish to create a European media giant to rival the likes of Netflix. That merger now looks unlikely. Shareholder investor adviser ISS is telling stock-holders in the […]

August 22, 2019

Viasat planning big for Europe

California-based Viasat and Paris-based Eutelsat were once extremely friendly, and still have good – formal – relations with one another although not quite as strong as a couple of years ago. The pair are bound together in a joint-venture over the use of spectrum on Eutelsat’s Ka-Sat, and while initially the joint venture was intended […]

August 20, 2019

The end for dish farms?

Dish farms are massive arrays of uplink and downlink parabolic dishes in a teleport which communicate with orbiting geostationary satellites. The dishes are huge, typically measuring 7-10 metres across, and very expensive. Moreover, even the specifically designed tracking antennas (usually of about 3 metres across) are of limited use for handling signals to or from […]

August 19, 2019

CBA maintains pressure

The C-Band Alliance (CBA) made another filing on August 14th to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and again fired a blistering extra salvo at suggestions made by the ACA Connects Coalition (ACACC). Peter Pitsch, CBA’s Head of Advocacy and Government Affairs said: “Our Reply Comment documents the numerous timing, technological and legal flaws that various […]

August 16, 2019

SpaceX increases naval fleet

SpaceX has had something of a maritime fleet from its beginnings. Its ‘Of course I still love you’ floating barge has been the landing stage for many of SpaceX flights. The second floating barge, with the giant text message saying “Just read the instructions” does a similar job usually on the Pacific. Elon Musk’s team […]

August 15, 2019

Netflix pushing TV tech boundaries

Just about every original programme and commissioned series on Netflix is made under their ‘4K obligations’. Indeed, the OTT streamer is so tough on film and programme-makers that it will not permit original material to be shot on one of the industry’s most popular cameras, the ARRI Alexa. The rules affect ARRI’s highly-regarded Alexa cameras […]

August 13, 2019

“Come fly on my rockets” says Musk

While flying humans into space, and perhaps as far as Mars, might be Elon Musk’s ultimate goal – he is also saying to small satellite designers and operators to join his Falcon 9 club of clients. SpaceX says its new SmallSat Rideshare project will help get smallish satellites into Sun-Synchronous Orbits for ultra-low fees of […]

August 7, 2019

BBC corrects OneWeb Russia “ban” story

A BBC report that satellite mega-constellation operator OneWeb had been blocked by Russia from sending or receiving signals from its orbiting satellites, has been corrected and updated. The BBC quotes Mikhail Kaigorodov, OneWeb’s commercial director for Russia, saying: “OneWeb’s joint venture in Russia has withdrawn its application for landing rights in the Russian Federation. The […]

August 6, 2019