On 13th & 14th May, the oil and gas industry, and the satellite solutions community will turn their collective attention to the 21st event in the GVF Oil & Gas Communications Series, and the 7th to be held in Aberdeen with a focus on the European oil & gas patch.

Spanish telecom conglomorate Telefonica has acquired Canal Plus, the biggest pay TV operator in Spain, for €725 million (US $1.0 billion).

Telefonica informed Madrid’s CNMV stock market regulator of the offer Tuesday. Prisa, the controlling shareholder of Canal Plus, notified the CNMV on Wednesday evening that it had accepted Telefonica’s US$1 billion bid. With the acquisition of a 56 per cent stake, Telefonica now becomes the major shareholder in the pay-TV group with a 78 per cent stake, with Mediaset holding the remainder 22 per cent.

In the first quarter of 2014, Telenor Group reported revenues of NOK 26.5 Billion (approxiametely US$ 4.4 Billion), representing an organic revenue growth of 1.5%. EBITDA before other items was NOK 9.3 Billion, the EBITDA margin was 35% and operating cash flow was NOK 5.6 billion.

Under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society, the 11th Convergence Summit, will take place in Amman on the 2nd and 3rd of June 2014 at the Four Seasons Hotel. Her Royal highness will be addressing the summit at the opening ceremony.

ITC Global, a provider of satellite communications to remote and harsh environments announced today that it completed a successful first quarter 2014, signing over US$ 30 million in new long-term service contracts.  The sales come from several new customers, as well as renewals and upgrades from existing clients. The first three months of the year also marked the successful deployment of 27 custom networks for clients across all three of the company’s primary markets – energy, mining, and maritime.  

Maximizing the successful operation of the oil & gas rigs of the future will depend on bandwidth usage level of 100 times that of today. This was the analysis of Brastrading, the Florida, USA, based company which provides engineering and high-level logistics, services, equipment and worldwide telecom solutions for the oil & gas market.

Intelsat S.A. today reported total revenue of US$ 628.9 million and net income attributable to Intelsat S.A. of US$ 81.9 million, or $0.70 per common share on a diluted basis, for the three months ended March 31, 2014.  The company reported adjusted net income per diluted common share1 of $0.92 for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

Pace today released a statement by management on its interim results for the period January 1, 2014 to April 23, 2014. Profitability of Pace was in line with management expectation and continues to have robust cash flow, according to the statement. 

A new report by Research and Markets entitled "Global Set Top Box Market 2014-2018"  forecasts the global Set Top Box (STB)  market to grow at a CAGR of 2.14 percent over the period 2014-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increase adoption of HD STB. The Global STB market has also been witnessing the growth in the number of pay TV subscribers. However, the high cost of advanced set top boxes could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Spain-based operator HISPASAT launched its new 4KTV channel for te Americas at the NAB in Las Vegas.  HISPASAT, The channel dubbed  “HISPASAT 4K”  will be aired unencrypted from the Amazonas satellite 3 to its coverage area of Central and North America.