Advanced Television

SES

SES GS equips US Airforce with Satcoms

SES Government Solutions (SES GS) has been awarded an Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) tests contract that allows to compete for individual task orders that together have a ceiling value of $950,000,000. The agreement is aimed at achieving the maturation, demonstration and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software […]

November 30, 2020

Bank: “BUY Eutelsat, SELL SES”

A pair of detailed reports to clients from investment bank Berenberg makes for good reading for Eutelsat but delivered negative advice as to the state of prospects for arch-rival SES. As for Eutelsat, Berenberg’s analyst Robert Berg says that the satellite operator’s shares are “still cheap”. The bank’s note says: “We reiterate our ‘Buy’ rating […]

November 27, 2020

Viasat, SES ready antennas for O3b/mPower

Viasat of California is in the final test stages of its antenna development programme for SES and its Middle Earth orbiting satellites. Prototypes should be delivered early in 2021. SES’ Stewart Sanders, EVP/O3b mPOWER Programme Lead at SES, in a statement said: “The flexibility designed into the Viasat phased array antenna will enable our current […]

November 19, 2020By Chris Forrester

Satellite, cinema operators boosted by vaccine news

Europe’s two big names in satellite communications saw large uplifts to their share prices thanks to the news about a probable Covid-19 vaccine. Eutelsat rose a significant 9.56 per cent on November 10th (and at one point hit €9.70). SES rose 3.9 per cent to €7.99 (and at one point touched €8.12) per share. The […]

November 11, 2020By Chris Forrester

Intelsat looks to eliminate $10bn of debt

Intelsat is currently working its way through its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation. Prior to the declaration of bankruptcy, the company’s debt burden was some $15.2 billion. It was massively weighed down by interest payments on that debt, costing the company more than $200 million per quarter-year. Intelsat says it is looking to mitigate a major […]

November 11, 2020

SES, Gilat confirm modem deal

Israel’s Gilat and satellite operator SES have extended their existing technology relationship with a “multi-million-dollar follow-on order” for high-speed modems. Gilat’s modems will deliver multi Gb/s throughput, targeting high-end services over SES’s O3b and O3b mPOWER MEO satellite constellation. Gilat’s high-throughput modems will support SES in delivering fiber-equivalent services for government and high-end enterprise solutions. […]

November 10, 2020By Chris Forrester

Big satellite operators all trending down

The satellite industry’s big 5 operators (Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat, Telesat and Viasat) have all now reported their quarterly numbers and – in summary – they are not good. Sami Kassab, an analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, in a useful summary note to clients says that overall, operating trends for the industry remain challenging with Intelsat […]

November 9, 2020

SES “no comment” on Eutelsat merger

The rumours that some sort of consolidation could take place between SES and Eutelsat refuse to die. At the November 5th results conference, analyst Patrick Wellington from Morgan Stanley almost seemed to appeal to SES CEO Steve Collar to come clean and explain the position. Collar politely declined the invitation to deliver any information – […]

November 6, 2020

SES scraps plans to split

SES has unveiled its Q3 and nine-month numbers, and also announced that it has cancelled plans to divide the company into two: a Video-based business (responsible for 59 per cent of group revenue) and a Networks company. Group revenues for the nine months were €1.41 billion and down 2.9 per cent on 2019’s €1.45 billion. […]

November 5, 2020By Chris Forrester

SES and Gilat tap O3b’s mPOWER

SES has signed Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect as its latest technology partners on its O3b mPower satellites. This means that Gilat and ST Engineering’s ‘next generation’ modems will be developed for use on the satellite operator’s O3b mPower craft. SES says Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect were selected based on their next-generation modem technologies. […]

November 3, 2020By Chris Forrester