Satellite continues to remain the strongest mode of content distribution in the region, with 93% total market share, despite the accelerated uptake of IPTV and streaming services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), according to new market study undertaken by Arabsat in conjunction with Ipsos in 2020.

The MENA region is home to a variety of satellite TV channels offering a mix of genres to cater to the diverse tastes of its viewers, with the most preferred TV-watching languages in the region besides Arabic and local languages, being English, French, and Turkish.

Orbcomm, a global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by GI Partners, a leading US-based investor in data infrastructure businesses, in an all-cash transaction that values Orbcomm at approximately US$ 1.1 billion, including net debt.

The latest update of “Prospects for the Small Satellite Market” was released this week by Euroconsult, forecasting further growth in the global supply and demand of government, commercial and academic satellites weighing up to 500 kg.

MDA Ltd., a provider of advanced technology and services to the burgeoning global space industry, today announced the successful closing of its previously announced an initial public offering (IPO) of common shares of the company. Pursuant to the Offering, MDA issued 28,571,500 Common Shares at a price of CDN$ 14.00 per Common Share for gross proceeds to the company of approximately CDN$ 400 million.

The common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “MDA”.

The Asia Video Industry Association’s (AVIA) OTT  Summit – The Future of Video Streaming welcomed 900 delegates and featured over 80 industry experts and leaders across the four-day conference this year. Opening the OTT Summit was the streaming analyst Matthew Ball, Managing Partner of Epyllion Industries, who presented a deep dive into the OTT industry in the United states, being the most mature, most competitive, and most valuable video market with the most consumptive media consumers in the world.

NSR’s latest report, Satellite Capacity Pricing Index, 7^th Edition (2021) finds capacity price declines decelerating in 2021, with the global mean price index declining by ~5-6% in Q1 2021, in contrast to ~13% in Q1 2020.

Global 8K TV household adoption will begin to build momentum over the next few years, reaching 72 million households by 2025. Following a slower than expected 2020 when just under 350 thousand 8K TVs were sold globally, Strategy Analytics’ forecasting models indicate sales of more than 1 million 8K TVs in 2021 and around 4 million in 2022. North America will be the leading region for 8K TVs by 2025 with close to 25 million households owning at least one 8K TV set.

Will 2021 be the year that a new generation of smallsat Internet of Things (IoT) networks take off?  Smallsats offer ubiquitous low-cost and low power connectivity for the global IoT industry. If it is up to some of the new operators, it sure will be, as the launch activities in the first quarter of 2021 demonstrate.

When the SpaceX Transporter-1 rideshare mission shot up in January 2021 to put 133 small-sats into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) this January, four of the most noticeable small satellite IoT systems were on board.