News Analysis

Multii-Screen Content Licensing Still a Major Headache for Pay TV Operators

Campbell, Calif., January 22, 2013—Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its new  Multi-Screen TV Service Deployment Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey for which Infonetics interviewed pay TV operators about their plans for multi-screen video services and delivering live and file-based video content to subscribers with multiple devices.

Full text available to subscribers only

SintecMedia Acquires Argo Systems

New York City, January 22, 2013- Broadcast management software provider SintecMedia today announced the acquisition of Argo Systems, a provider of business solutions to the cable network and operators industry. This is SintecMedia's second acquisition in the North American market, complementing its recent purchase of StorerTV.

Full text available to subscribers only

Liberty Media Gains Control of Sirius XM

Englewood, Colo., January 18, 2013--In a quest that started four years ago, Liberty Media Corp. finally took control of Sirius XM Radio Inc. on Thursday after it bought additional 50 million common shares in the satellite radio company.

Full text available to subscribers only

SpeedCast Completes Buyout of Elektrikom Satellite Services

Hong Kong, January 17, 2013 – SpeedCast Ltd, has completed, with the support of its majority shareholder, TA Associates, a buyout of maritime services provider Elektrikom Satellite Services, based in the Netherlands.

Full text available to subscribers only

Nevion and T-VIPS complete merger

Sandefjord, Norway, January 16, 2013— Nevion and T-VIPS, pioneers of media transport for broadcasters, service providers and government entities worldwide, announced Wednesday the completion of their merger following regulatory approvals.

Full text available to subscribers only

The Global Navigation Satellite System Market Positions Itself for the Future

London, UK,  Jan. 15, 2013-- Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which started purely as a military application, has now widened to include all possible users - government agencies, industries, and even individuals. Frost & Sullivan analysis forecasts increasing prominence of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) data derived from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and associated Value Added Services (VAS) in the next 10 to 20 years.

Full text available to subscribers only

Hughes Achieves Major Milestone of Over Three Million Satellite Terminals Shipped

Germantown, Md., January 14, 2013 - Hughes Network Systems today announced that it has shipped more than 487,000 broadband satellite terminals in 2012, the most ever in one year, bringing its cumulative number of satellite terminals shipped worldwide to more than 3.3 million.

Full text available to subscribers only

DirecTV tops 20 million subscribers

Las Vegas, Nev.  January 14, 2013--US satellite TV provider DirecTV added 100,000 net subscribers in the fourth quarter raising its total subscriber base to more than 20 million at the end of 2012. DirecTV's Chief Executive said on Tuesday DirecTV had a "good quarter" and the churn was better than expected. But the increase during the quarter was 25,000 less than the subscriber net gain during the same period last year when it added 125,000 subscribers.

Full text available to subscribers only

Trends to Watch in 2013

by Virgil Labrador, Editor-Chief

Los Angeles, Calif., January 7, 2013--Shakespeare once said that the “past is prologue.”  And the significant events of 2012 are a good portent of things to come in 2013 and beyond.  Here are some of the events from 2012 that will shape and influence coming industry trends (not necessarily in order of significance):

Satellites: Connecting the Unconnected

by Johann Pohany

Luxembourg City, January 3, 2013-Anybody who lives outside an urban area in Europe is familiar with the problem of slow loading internet pages. Due to the steady rise of data streams on modern internet pages it can take ages to load an internet page these days, often forcing the browser to time out. While internet access is widely regarded as a right and no longer a privilege – and social, economic and even political development is increasingly dependent on broadband connectivity – millions of people across Europe suffer from insufficient or even non-existent internet connectivity.