NAGRA, a Kudelski Group (SIX:KUD.S) company, today released the global findings of the 2019 Pay-TV Innovation Forum. The report summarises key findings and insights collected from industry executives across four regions: Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and North America. It examines key market trends and developments, the most significant challenges facing pay-TV providers and industry executive priorities for opportunities and investments going forward.

EchoStar Corporation (NASDAQ:SATS) has announced the completion of its previously announced spin-off and subsequent merger with DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) of the portion of its business that manages, markets and provides (i) broadcast satellite services primarily to DISH, Dish Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. and their respective subsidiaries and (ii) telemetry, tracking and control services to satellites owned by DISH and a portion of EchoStar's other businesses, and certain related assets and business operations. 

I sit down to write this column within days of having returned from a GVF mission to the South Pacific, to Papua New Guinea. There, we – Riaz Lamak, Lead in GVF’s Benchmarking, Validation and High Availabilty Disaster Recovery (HADR) initiatives, and I – were hosted by both the United States Department of Defense Indo-Pacific Command and the PNG Defense Force under the ‘Multinational Communications Interoperability Program’ (MCIP).

In the competitive and rapidly changing teleport business, one company is making waves and gaining substantial market share in a relatively short time through its holistic approach to providing services. iKO Media Group (iKOMG) is a boutique end-to-end media service partner for broadcasters and content owners. They provide tailor-made solutions focused on customer needs through dedicated service to a wide range of global and local networks and a keen ability to offer the best SLA for mid-size networks.

An Inter-regional Workshop focused on preparations for the upcoming World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) opened in Geneva today.

This preparatory workshop for WRC-19, the third such meeting, will meet 4-6 September 2019. Discussions will centre on the agenda of the World Radiocommunication Conference as well as regional priorities and inputs that have been prepared both for WRC-19, which will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from 28 October until 22 November 2019, and the Radiocommunication Assembly (RA-19) that will precede it at the same venue, 21-25 October.

Following shareholder approval and its registration in the Chamber of Commerce, Airbus’ Italian space subsidiary Space Engineering has officially changed its name to Airbus Italia S.p.A.. Space Engineering is adopting the Airbus logo as its single visual identity.

Astrocast, a Switzerland-based Internet of Things (IoT) nanosatellite network, has secured US$ 9.2 (€8.3M)  Series A round of funding to accelerate production of IoT modules, to begin commercial phase and deployment of the its Low Earth Orbit (LEO) IoT network.

To date, Astrocast has raised CHF 16.6M in total funding. Founded in 2014 by the developers of SwissCube, one of the longest lasting, operational nanosatellites in space and led by Fabien Jordan, CEO, and José Achache, to develop an advanced nanosatellite network for the Internet of things (IoT).