Focus: Broadcasting

Intelsat has contracted Maxar Technologies and Northrop Grumman to build new satellites to support its C-band spectrum clearing. The satellite operator announced Monday that Maxar Technologies will build and deliver four satellites, and Northrop Grumman will build and deliver two satellites. The operator is also currently in negotiations with manufacturers for a seventh satellite. The...

TV TEM, an affiliate of TV Globo, has signed a multi-year contract with Eutelsat for capacity on its 65 West A satellite to distribute its programming in Brazil’s São Paulo state. The partnership, announced Monday, has enabled TV TEM to migrate its feeds from traditional C-band, from 3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz, to planned C-band,...

Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite provider Cignal TV has contracted Hughes Network Systems to provide HughesNet broadband service to its two million subscribers in the Philippines, Hughes announced May 27. Cignal TV will utilize Hughes’ Jupiter VSAT platform, which includes user terminals and a network management system. The Hughes Jupiter System supports applications such as community Wi-Fi...

Texas-based AI startup Hypergiant Industries has officially launched a software platform that supports autonomous satellite operations for commercial and government entities. The Hyper-Intelligent Vehicle Enhancement (H.I.V.E.) fleet operations platform aims to reduce costs for operators who currently have significant capital investments in mission management operations. Hypergiant worked with Dynetics, which was recently acquired by Leidos,...

Eutelsat has inked a multi-year contract with Travel Africa Network to broadcast its first African travel channel in HD from the HOTBIRD video hotspot, the operator announced May 22. Operating at the 13 degrees East orbital slot, Eutelsat’s HOTBIRD satellites will broadcast the content to “more than 135 million TV homes” throughout Europe and the...

In the second of our two-part interview with Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer, we look at some of the key verticals outside of broadcast. Mobility remains a key driver for most satellite players and Belmer talks in detail about the market and the impact that COVID-19 could have on Eutelsat’s operations in this area. We also...

Eutelsat released its First Quarter financial results last week and there were some encouraging signs as the operator looks to navigate the COVID-19 era. The operator’s broadcast revenues remained resilient, a positive sign because broadcast still accounts for over 60% of the operator’s revenues. Giles Thorne, managing director of Equity Research, TMT, Jefferies hailed the...

Azercosmos has signed a partnership with TheAngle, which provides satellite network services in the Middle East. The two companies announced May 6 that they plan to provide communication services including internet, network, voice, video, mobile, and other data services in the Middle East and Europe. Hassaan Karim, general manager at TheAngle said the partnership with...

The European Commission approved the previously announced combination of Canal Digital, Telenor Group’s satellite pay-TV business, with Viasat Consumer, Nordic Entertainment Group’s satellite pay-TV and broadband-TV business, into a new joint venture company. Telenor Group and Nordic Entertainment Group will each hold 50% of the shares of the new company. The Nordic consumer offering will...

Two Cobham SATCOM land satellite terminals have received Inmarsat type approval, the companies announced Thursday. The low-profile vehicular Cobham Explorer 323 BGAN terminal and the auto-point “fly-away” Cobham Explorer 6075LX VSAT terminal are now fully operational on the Inmarsat network and commercial shipments for each have begun.  The new Explorer 323 terminal represents the first...