Hakan Sjodin has been named as the new managing director of SES Sirius replacing Per Norman who is leaving the company to head up the Swedish DTT platform Boxer. Sjodin takes up his post on September 10 ahead of the launch of the new Sirius 4 satellite. “The satellite market is growing, partly because many [...]
MultiChoice adds 4 Eutelsat transponders
August 30, 2007 14.24 Europe/London By
MultiChoice Africa has leased a further four transponders at Eutelsat Communications’ 36 degrees East orbital slot. The new transponders on the SESAT 1 satellite will be used to deliver digital TV services and Internet access to residential and corporate customers. Combined with the co-located Eutelsat W4, the contract brings the number of transponders leased at [...]
Orbit flies over the Atlantic to Europe
August 29, 2007 19.07 Europe/London By
The Middle-Eastern premium DTH operator Orbit has teamed up with Eutelsat’s German visAvision subsidiary for distribution of three of its Arabic premium channels on the Eutelsat KabelKiosk platform. By doing so, it has provided an easy way for European cable operators to offer Arabic channels, which are already available in Europe to satellite subscribers, on [...]
Astra announces full Entavio details
August 29, 2007 18.17 Europe/London By
IFA 2007 – BERLIN. During a special press briefing SES Astra announced full details of the much debated Entavio platform, which is due to be launched on September 1. Consumers will have to fork out €1.99 a month for “the technical access to pay-TV”. The activation fee of €9.99 will be waived till the end [...]
Discovery centralises network operations
August 28, 2007 11.07 Europe/London By
Discovery Communications has announced plans to centralise its global network operations infrastructure. The move sees John Honeycutt named as executive vice president and chief media technology officer and Myrna Renaud as senior vice president, international media operations. Between them Silver Springs-based Honeycutt and Renaud, based at the Latin American headquarters in Miami, will be responsible [...]
Belgacom to sell satellite business
August 22, 2007 06.55 Europe/London By
Belgian telecom operator Belgacom today announced it would sell its satellite business to the Indian ORG Informatics Limited. Transfer of the assets will happen this autumn. About 34 people are now working in the satellite division; the company said they would be offered other jobs with the Belgacom Group. The transfer of the satellite business [...]
EC approves Telenor subsidiary takeover
August 21, 2007 10.19 Europe/London By
The European Commission approved the planned acquisition of Telenor Satellite Services by private equity group Apax Partners. The Norwegian incumbent telecom company Telenor first revealed the sale of its subsidiary Telenor Satellite Services to Apax for $400 million in October of last year. The deal was awaiting regulatory clearance. At issue was Apax’s other interests [...]
Intelsat reports Q2 2007 results
August 9, 2007 11.58 Europe/London By
Intelsat, Ltd., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, today reported results for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2007. Results for the second quarter of 2007 reflect the impact of the July 3, 2006 acquisition of PanAmSat Holding Corporation, which was subsequently renamed Intelsat Holding Corporation. Intelsat reported revenue of [...]
Astra helps SES to strong first half
August 6, 2007 07.23 Europe/London By
SES has recorded a strong first half with the satellite operator reporting a revenue increase of 11% at €789.1 million. Net profit was down from €215.6m in 2006 to €207.8m, though net income in 2007 was impacted by €11.6m, following the launch failure of the NSS-8 satellite. The group satellite utilisation rate at June 30, [...]
EC approves Astra-Eutelsat mobile project
July 26, 2007 11.03 Europe/London By
The European Commission has given its approval to the proposed mobile TV project planned by Eutelsat and SES Astra. The Commission said the deal would not impede effective competition. The two companies had proposed a 50/50 joint venture company that would operate an S-band payload on the Eutelsat W2A satellite. The total investment was estimated [...]
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Digital TV Eastern Europe NEW REPORT by Simon Murray of Digital TV Research. 2012 is a watershed year for Eastern Europe as the number of digital homes for 15 forecast countries will exceed the analogue total for the first time. This electronically-delivered,150-page report comes in three parts, a PDF file and two Excel workbooks. Countries covered include Russia and Ukraine.