News Analysis

Amman, Jordan, July 8, 2013--New research from the Arab Advisors Group analyzes and compares the social media presence of 40 Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite channels in the Arab World. By mid-June 2013, news and current affairs channels BBC World, Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera English took the lead in the number of Twitter followers, while MBC Group had the highest number of YouTube subscribers on its channel.

London, UK, July 4, 2013--Superfast broadband services delivering 30 megabits a second or more now account for 20% of the consumer market in the UK, according to Point Topic.

Stockholm, Sweden, July 2, 2013--Ericsson announced  its intention to acquire Red Bee Media, a leading media services company headquartered in the UK, from an entity controlled by Macquarie Advanced Investment Partners, L.P.

Ottawa, Canada, July 2, 2013 — Nav Canada has invested an additional US$40 million in Aireon LLC, a joint venture with Iridium Communications Inc., increasing its ownership of Aireon to 18.7 percent on a fully diluted basis.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, July 1, 2013--Globecomm Systems Inc. announced today that Globecomm Europe BV has become the official new entity of Carrier-to-Carrier Telecom BV and BV Mach 6, two Dutch communications services companies that have joined forces through today’s merger.

Scottsdale, Ariz., June 28, 2013--Nearly one-third of US Telco TV households are expected to access multiscreen or TV Everywhere services by the end of 2013 – the vast majority of which already use advanced interactive features like remote programming a DVR, according to ABI Research. Cable is close behind due to its early lead, but the growth rate for these services is slower because of the greater diversity of cable households and services (not all service providers offer TVE). Satellite operators are further behind, due to slower starts and lack of in-house broadband services, but offer some novel experiences like Dish’s Sling place-shifting technology.

Boston, Massachusetts, June 25, 2013- 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.

Kourou. French Guiana, June 25, 2013--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. 

Palo Alto, Calif., June 25, 2013 — 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.

Cambridge, Mass., June 25, 2013--NSR's just released Wireless Backhaul via Satellite, 7th Edition report finds the industry at the cusp of an evolutionary step. The impending launch of O3b and global HTS program deployments are leading the industry to dramatic and long term change with a strong potential for industry revenue to hit $2.9 billion by 2022, growing more than three-fold from today’s $830+ million revenue base.