Millions of girls are missing. They are missing from school. They are missing from jobs. They are missing from the leadership of their communities and nations.

They are missing because they live in places where just “being a girl” is hard. Twelve million of them every year become child brides and teenage mothers. One hundred thirty million of them are not in school – worldwide, girls are almost twice as likely as boys to miss out on education. Of the more than 600 million unemployed young people in the world, most are female.

In starting to draft this column it was impossible not to be affected by the news that the official global figure for Covid-19 fatalities was approaching 250,000. The zoonotic – interspecies – jump to humans and subsequent pandemic spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has badly impacted many of the world’s most advanced and richest countries, but the epidemiology tells us that the worst of the impact, on the less-developed world, is still to come.

Redline Communications 

New consumer data from international research firm Parks Associates reveals an increase in streaming video viewership during the COVID-19 outbreak. The survey of 10,000 broadband households, fielded between March 8 and April 3 to 10,000 US heads of broadband households, finds 76% of US broadband households subscribe to an OTT service, increasing by roughly six million households since Q1 2019.

Western Europe is forecast to have 197 million SVOD subscriptions by 2025, doubling from 88 million at end-2019. About 45 million subscribers will be added in 2020 alone, with the Covid lockdown providing a major boost according to new research from Digital TV Research.

Rocket Lab has closed the transaction to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary, a leading provider of high-quality, flight-proven satellite hardware. Rocket Lab initially announced the execution of the agreement to acquire Sinclair Interplanetary on March 16, 2020 pending customary closing conditions and satisfying The Investment Canada Act review process. Terms of the approved deal were not disclosed.

Infostellar has raised a total of US$ 3.5 million in convertible bonds with existing investors Airbus Ventures and Sony Innovation Fund, while welcoming new investors Daiwa Energy Infrastructure, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance. As a result, the cumulative amount of funds raised now reaches USD 11.5 million.

Infostellar is continuing to raise additional funds, and this round is scheduled to be closed by June 2020.

At Satellite 2020 in Washington, D.C. Satellite Markets and Research Editor-in-Chief Virgil Labrador interviewed key executives including Alexander Müller-Gastell, CEO-ND SatCom; 

Satellite operator Intelsat (NYSE: I)today announced that Tahmin O. Clarke has joined the company as Vice President of Investor Relations. Based in the company’s McLean, Va. office, Clarke is responsible for managing the company’s relationships with shareholders, bondholders and lenders, and the equity and fixed income research analyst community.

Euroconsult announched that the World Satelltie Business Week (WSBW) has been rescheduled to November 9-12, 2020.  Original shceduled to be held in Paris in September, the organizers cited the "ongoing related dynamics" as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic as one the reasons for the postponement.