News Analysis

Rochelle Park, NJ, November 4, 2013--ORBCOMM Inc. a global provider of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions, and Inmarsat, a provider of global mobile satellite communications services, today announced a strategic alliance to collaborate on joint product development and distribution to address the needs of the rapidly growing satellite M2M market. In addition, they will investigate opportunities for future satellite network expansion and integration.

Paris, France, November 4, 2013 – According to Euroconsult's recently published research report, Satellites to be Built & Launched by 2022, World Market Survey , 115 satellites will be launched on average each year worldwide over the next 10 years (2013-2022). As several commercial and government constellations will be launched into low earth orbit (LEO) in the coming years, up to 140 satellites per year are expected between 2015 and 2017, decelerating to 100 units afterwards.

Washington, D.C., November 1, 2013 — Intelsat S.A.  reported on revenues of US$ 651.8 million and net income of $87.8 million, or $0.75 per share, for the three months ended September 30, 2013.  But the company admitted that its Q3 revenues was badly hit by the slowdown in military and other US Defense Department spending on satellite bandwidth, and warned of even lower revenues ahead from cuts in U.S. government spending.

Paris, France, Oct. 29, 2013 — Fuelled by an increase in data and value-added services, Eutelsat Communications reported on Tuesday revenues of €323.5 (US$444.74 million) for the first quarter ended Sept. 30 2013, up 2.9% from first quarter 2012.

Denver, Colorado, Oct. 28, 2013 — In an effort to balance its books after its spending spree on European cable assets, Liberty Global plc announced today the sale of all its international content division Chellomedia to AMC Networks Inc. for US$1.035 billion.

Mountain View, Calif., Oct. 24, 2013--Video consumption across non-traditional devices such as tablets, smartphones, PCs and connected PCs evolved exponentially into a global phenomenon that is not restricted to a geographic area or a limited number of service providers.  With cable TV service providers offering more applications and interactive content, the rising adoption of IP by broadcasters and video service providers, and the growing consolidation among operators, the global IP video network management market benefited greatly, forecasted to reach US$ 442.4 million in 2017, from US$ 217.8 million in 2012.

London, UK, October 24, 2013--Viacom (US$749 million) will reap the highest revenues of any international channel  group in Europe in 2013, according to a new report from Digital TV Research.  Covering 225 international channels/networks from 11 groups, the TV Channel  Revenues in Europe report estimates that Viacom will be followed by Eurosport (US$ 651 million) and Discovery (US $620 million). 

London, UK, October 24, 2013--Broadband in Europe is doing  well.  5 of the top 10 ‘fastest’ markets worldwide are European, coverage is on a planned path (unlike many countries around the world) and many of the suppliers are showing useful financial stability and promise as revenues are increasing at least overall, according to new analysis from Poin Topic.

Saltaire, UK, Oct. 23, 2013 — Set-top boxes developer Pace plc is acquiring optical transport and access network solutions provider Aurora Networks for US$ 310 million in cash.

London, UK,  Oct. 18, 2013 — BSkyB showed strength across all its products during the first quarter of fiscal 2013 with plenty of highlights. During the first three months ended 30 September 2013, BSkyB snatched 800,000 new paid-for subscription products for a 50% year on year growth. Sky Broadband surpassed 5 million customers with 111,000 net new broadband customers added in the quarter, up 9% year on year, while triple play penetration rose to 36%, up 3 percentage points.