Sydney-based Macquarie Group Limited ,  a global investment banking and diversified financial services company, is reported to be auctioning off its 25 percent stake in Arqiva, a telecommunications company that provides infrastructure and broadcast transmission facilities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. 

Macquairie, according to Financial Times, is anticipating GBP 600 million (US$971.17 million) for the stake.

The Satellite Interference Reduction Group (IRG) will be tackling a number of important issues at its annual conference, which this year takes place in Rio de Janeiro from 16th - 18th October and is being sponsored by Intelsat, Kratos, Newtec, and SatMex.
 

Vivendi and EchoStar Corp. announced today that EchoStar Technologies LLC and Vivendi subsidiary GVT have entered into negotiations to form a joint venture for pay TV services in Brazil.

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider and O3b Networks today announced that Huawei and O3b are the first in the world to enable full 3G voice, data and video over satellite. This follows rigorous testing of O3b’s system in the Huawei Interoperability Lab in Shanghai, China.  Furthermore, Huawei’s telepresence, video surveillance, unified communication and datacom solutions are also compatible with O3b’s medium-earth orbit (MEO) satellites based on corresponding test results.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations for information and communication technology (ICT), announced today that the State of Qatar has been selected as host country for ITU Telecom World 2014, following a competitive selection process among bidding ITU Member States.

Given the fast changing configuration of the satellite-cable TV market, is the merger of DirecTV and its chief rival Dish Network now appropriate and sensible?  The answer is a clear “yes” from both companies. 

Mike White, DirecTV’s chairman and CEO, told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia media conference this week that consolidation between the USA’s two giant DTH players would benefit the consumer and yet still be competitive. He was quoted in an earlier forum saying while it might take a lot of work to do a deal he’d “never say never.”

As operators, broadcasters and content providers continue to look for ways to monetise content delivery, next week’s CDN World Summit will exclusively reveal ground-breaking insights, provide future forecasts for CDN, and give visitors the opportunity to meet all of the major players within the ecosystem. As part of its evolution, the event will this year explore key areas such as Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), Software Defined Networking (SDN), Edge Caching and the Cloud.

New strategiess to capture and retain viewers, while increasing advertisement potential, were key areas of focus on the second day of the CASBAA 2013 in Hong Kong. Global and Asian industry leaders joined media personalities to examine successful strategies and techniques.

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), a satellite and terrestrial communications solution provider and satcom technology manufacturer, has acquired STM and its affiliate entities Global IP and Vodanet Brasil.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Asia Pacific’s exploding pay-TV market, piracy and the challenges of regulations took the spotlight on the first day of the CASBAA Convention 2013, entitled Change is ON THE AIR. Starring global and Asian industry leaders, regulators, media personalities and technologists, the conference discussed key opportunities and concerns that are shaping the media and broadcasting industry.