Advanced Television

eutelsat

Eutelsat wins Canal+ DTH pay-bundle for Ethiopia

Canal+ has contracted with Eutelsat to launch a premium bundle of about 50 pay-TV channels. Canal+ will use Eutelsat’s 7C East craft on what Eutelsat describes as a “long-term multi-transponder” deal with the satellite’s dedicated Ethiopian Ku-band spot beam. Eutelsat 7C is a high-power broadcast satellite which entered into service in January 2020 and is […]

July 28, 2020By Chris Forrester

Orange’s Eutelsat order examined

July 22nd saw Eutelsat announce that French telco Orange had taken all of the available capacity targeting France on Eutelsat’s current ‘Konnect’ satellite. Sami Kassab, an equity analyst at investment bank Exane/BNPP, says that while neither party disclosed the size or value of the contract the deal was likely to involve 5-10Gb/s of High Throughput […]

July 24, 2020

Eutelsat & Orange offer satellite broadband to France

Telco giant Orange is partnering with satellite operator Eutelsat to offer consumers satellite-based broadband. The agreement is a major commitment from Orange. Orange has purchased from Eutelsat all the available capacity on the recently launched Eutelsat Konnect satellite to cover the entire French territory. “It will enable Orange’s consumer customer base, even those living in […]

July 23, 2020By Chris Forrester

Eutelsat reinvents FTA EPGs

The Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) has been around in one form or another on pay-TV and certain Freesat-type platforms for as long as digital TV has been a reality. But how does a satellite operator handle around 1,000 free-to-air channels from hundreds of broadcasters and provide a common EPG that can work extremely successfully across […]

July 21, 2020By Chris Forrester

Inmarsat/Hughes object to SES/Intelsat C-band plan

Inmarsat and Hughes Network Systems have joined Eutelsat in objecting to the FCC’s current C-band auction rules. The pair say that the FCC’s incentive scheme favours Intelsat and SES and will give the two satellite giants an unfair competitive advantage. Inmarsat and Hughes (and EchoStar Satellite Services) have written to the FCC saying they agree […]

July 2, 2020By Chris Forrester

Canada, India interested in OneWeb

Ottawa-based Telesat has reportedly entered a bid for OneWeb’s satellite assets. But it isn’t alone. There will be an auction process on July 2nd in New York. The UK is widely reported to have committed to a $500 million (£405m) participation for a 20 per cent stake in OneWeb. The UK bid is said to […]

July 1, 2020By Chris Forrester

UK government bids for OneWeb stake

June 26th is ‘Bidding Day’ for OneWeb’s assets. Would-be buyers have to enter their bids for OneWeb, which is in bankruptcy.  If no – or inadequate – bids are entered, then the process goes forward to an auction of assets on July 2nd. The UK government is widely reported to have joined a consortium bidding […]

June 26, 2020By Chris Forrester

FCC wins C-band spat with ‘small sat’ operators

A court case has been heard by the US Court of Appeals between ABS, Hispasat and Arsat which had been arguing that the FCC should pause the date of Commission’s Dec auction of C-band frequencies over the US. The trio were deliberately excluded by the FCC from its incentive plan for C-band compensation given to […]

June 24, 2020By Chris Forrester

Eutelsat to order C-band satellite for US

Eutelsat has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it will clear its required C-band spectrum over the US, and will order a new C-band satellite to provide replacement capacity for existing services. Eutelsat is required to clear its spectrum and have a satellite in orbit by 2023 in order to qualify for the FCC’s […]

June 23, 2020By Chris Forrester

Eutelsat cautiously optimistic on outlook

Eutelsat’s CEO Rodolphe Belmer, speaking at the Exane/BNPP-organised CEO Conference in Paris, painted a cautiously optimistic view for the medium-term outlook for the satellite operator. Belmer said he continues to expect its Video Broadcast division (62 per cent of group FY20e revenues) revenues to be broadly stable and to benefit from lower replacement capex. Once […]

June 23, 2020