As the rate of economic growth accelerates and household incomes rise in Latin America, operators are expected to expand their multiplay and bundled offerings and increase efforts to upsell current customers to multi-service packages, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

CPI International, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Communications & Power Industries LLC (CPI) have acquired MCL, Inc., a manufacturer of power amplifier products and systems for the satellite communications market and a wholly owned subsidiary of MITEQ, Inc.

CPI provides microwave, radio frequency (RF), power and control solutions for critical defense, communications, medical and other applications. MITEQ manufactures high-performance RF microwave components and satellite communications (satcom) products.

O3b’s first four satellites were successfully launched aboard the Arianespace Soyuz launch vehicle on Tuesday marking the start of telecommunications and Internet services over Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and the Middle East that combine the global reach of satellite coverage with the speed of a fiber-optic network. 

NSR's just released Wireless Backhaul via Satellite, 7th Edition report finds the industry at the cusp of an evolutionary step.

Based on forecasts for 97 countries, global pay TV revenues [subscription fees and on-demand movies and TV episodes] will climb to $203 billion in 2018, up by $19 billion on 2012. According to the Digital TV World Revenue Forecasts report the fast growth years for the sector are over, with annual growth hovering at below 2% from 2015. Growth in 2013 will be 3.2%.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) today  released its 2013 State of the Satellite Industry Report, showing a 7% growth in  world satellite industry revenues in 2012, up from 5% growth in 2011. Globally, 2012 revenues for the satellite industry totaled $189.5 billion, up from $177.3 billion  the previous year. All four industry sectors grew, led by satellite services, the  traditional driver for the industry. Both satellite manufacturing and launch services  saw significant revenue increases, and satellite ground equipment revenues also  continued to expand.

DirecTV is entering the home security and automation business by acquiring Pennsylvania-based LifeShield Home Security.

DirecTV announced on Tuesday it had bought LifeShield for an undisclosed sum. DirecTV said it is leveraging LifeShield's self-installed security and monitoring platform to reach out to consumers starting in early 2014. With an estimated 20 percent of U.S. homes owning security systems, new entrants see plenty of potential growth in the business.

The Federal Communications Commission is initiating an inquiry into the competitive practices of the Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) industry because of allegations that some operators are “warehousing” satellite orbital locations and frequency assignments and are barring competitors from purchasing capacity on their satellites.

Liberty Global plc has completed its acquisition of British cable operator Virgin Media Inc. in a stock and cash merger valued at approximately US$ 24 billion (€18.26 billion) following shareholder approvals, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Mike Fries, President and CEO of Liberty Global, said the combined company now provides over 47 million video, voice and broadband services to 25 million customers located principally in 12 European countries.

According to The Diffusion Group (TDG), more than four years after the first public announcement of the cable industry’s ‘TV Everywhere’ (TVE) initiative, deployment to America’s multichannel TV subscribers remains at less than 50%.