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.

Analysts issue Paramount Global warning

Research analysts MoffettNathanson (MN), at their first Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in New York City last week, made a number of individual recommendations to delegates. Not all were positive. Amongst the portfolio were Meta Platforms, Cogent Communications, video games business Roblox, Charter Communications and Paramount Global. Analyst Robert Fishman from MN said that even […]

May 22, 2023

Viasat, Inmarsat targeting growth in IFC, D2C cellular

Mark Dankberg, chairman of Viasat, said that his company’s airline clients were buying into the concept of geostationary satellites and that the recently launched ViaSat-3 satellite would make a major difference to its airline broadband services. Viasat serves 15 airlines including Delta Air Lines which represents major – and growing – demand on Viasat’s satellite […]

May 22, 2023

South Africa misses DSO again

South Africa is now some 12 years behind in its much-promised full adoption of digital television and the switching off of analogue TV signals. The initial digital switch-over was supposed to happen back in November 2011. The latest switch-over date was March 31st 2023, and the date was again missed. The delays are blamed on […]

May 19, 2023

SpaceX extends reuse of Falcon 9 boosters

SpaceX regularly reuses its Falcon 9 booster rockets. Reuse levels of eight or 10 time are now fairly routine. Indeed, some boosters have now flow 13 to 15 times. William Gerstenmaier, VP/Build & Flight Reusability at SpaceX, now says that booster refurbishing is taking place to extend the life of a typical booster to a […]

May 18, 2023

Terran Orbital under financial pressure

Florida-based Terran Orbital is having a tough time. Following on from its May 15th quarterly report its share price dropped by almost 18 per cent, not helped by concerns that a major client might also be suffering a cash squeeze. May 16th saw a modest recovery of 1.6 per cent in its share price. Terran […]

May 17, 2023

Liberty Media facing further Class Actions

Two major Class Actions are naming Liberty Media and CEO Greg Maffei in their allegations. One Class Action by shareholders in TripAdvisor, itself with a major shareholder in the shape of Liberty Media, can proceed with their lawsuit. The claim centres on a move by TripAdvisor from its existing Delaware domicile to Nevada and alleged […]

May 16, 2023

Telesat: Zero news on Lightspeed

Canada-based satellite operator Telesat, which operates the Anik, Nimiq and Telstar satellites, failed to give investors or analysts any good news on its proposed $5 billion Lightspeed low Earth orbiting broadband fleet. In fact, the news was depressing given the frequent past promises and assurances that all was well with the project. Telesat President/CEO Dan […]

May 15, 2023

Eutelsat/OneWeb: “Synergies of more than €1.5bn”

Eutelsat says that its upcoming merger with Low-Earth orbiting constellation OneWeb will achieve estimated savings for between €1.5 billion-€1.8 billion in the two businesses’ operational costs, measured against an overall cost to Eutelsat of an estimated €4 billion in terms of acquisition and investment. The Eutelsat and OneWeb merger is on track to close during […]

May 12, 2023

Satellite electrical propulsion to grow

It isn’t so very long ago that electrical propulsion for satellites was a very new kid on the block. Boeing’s Xenon-Ion Propulsion System (XIPS) was introduced on the (then) Hughes 702 versions its high-power versions of its popular HS-702 craft and used for final orbital insertion. December 1999 saw the launch of an HS-702 with […]

May 10, 2023

EchoStar wants hundreds of new satellites

EchoStar is sitting on a war chest of $1.7 billion in cash, and wants to invest in an expanded fleet of wide-band satellites to augment its existing 28-craft fleet of Lyra narrowband satellites. The news emerged in EchoStar’s post-result analyst call when CEO Hamid Akhavan said: “We are in the design and engineering phase of […]

May 10, 2023