Advanced Television

Inside Satellite

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.

Eutelsat awards star channels

Eutelsat’s glittering Hot Bird prizes were awarded to a slew of channels in Venice, some well-established and some fairly new to the world of satellite transmission. Founded in 1998, this event was the 13th in the series “and is now a healthy teenager,” said Eutelsat chairman Giuliano Berretta. “We congratulate the men and women generating […]

November 22, 2010

Rush for cut price ECO-TVs in Japan

Sales of flat-panel TVs at Japan’s electronics stores during the second week of November (8th-14th) increased by almost 600 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, as consumers rushed to the stores to beat the cut-down of the government’s subsidy program for the purchase of eco-friendly home appliances. Data from market research […]

November 18, 2010

Iraqi satellite TV channels get “final warning”

Hot on the heels of last month’s decisions to drop more than a dozen Arabic channels from Nilesat comes news that some 25 Iraqi channels are threatened with closure because they are unlicensed. BBC Monitoring is reporting that a senior Iraqi official in the Communications and Media Commission has threatened to shut down the channels. […]

November 11, 2010

Telesat mulls sale, or IPO

Canada’s Telesat has confirmed it is looking at a possible IPO, as well as evaluating other potential options for the company. Indeed, either way, it looks like another handsome pay day is in the offing for CEO Dan Goldberg who has considerable experience of migrating satellite operators to a ‘next level’ owner. For example Goldberg […]

November 9, 2010

Eutelsat keeps W3B aloft

On Oct 29 Eutelsat declared its W3B satellite – launched a day earlier – as a “total loss”. The satellite operator was expected to deliberately de-orbit the satellite into the Pacific Ocean within hours. Now it has emerged that the satellite is to be maintained in orbit. The satellite is now expected to orbit for […]

November 8, 2010

Nilesat facing censorship claims

Egypt is getting tough with some contentious channels and, meanwhile, there’s some highly vocal Arab criticism that ordering channels off Nilesat is directly linked to upcoming presidential elections in Egypt. ‘Not so’, implies Nilesat’s chief engineer Salah Hamza. “We have no formal regulator covering satellite transmission. There is no Ofcom, no FCC, no […]

November 2, 2010

SES maintains upward progress

SES says that all its revenue and core profit metrics are being maintained. Indeed, its year-on-year quarterly results are most impressive, with this latest quarter’s revenues up 11.4 per cent on 2009’s numbers. However, SES managed to exclude business from its ND Satcom subsidiary, which it sold earlier this week, in its 9-month results announcement […]

October 27, 2010

Ofcom’s YouView light is amber, not green

There have been plenty of headlines in the UK suggesting that Ofcom has “approved” YouView, the BBC-backed video-on-demand service. “Not so,” implies Tony Ballard, a media lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis. Ofcom has said that any investigation now would be “premature” because it was part of an emerging sector, its impact too unclear at this […]

October 19, 2010

‘Zombie’ satellite still a threat

Intelsat’s uncontrolled Galaxy-15 craft is still posing a threat to broadcasting satellites which are in its path. Galaxy-15 was probably affected by a solar flare back in April and cannot be controlled from the ground. It is drifting steadily – and predictably – along an orbital arc and while there is little chance of collision […]