European telecom satellite company SES announced today that it is acquiring rival Intelsat for $3.1 billion. The deal, unanimously approved by both companies’ boards, is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2025, and will be financed by a combination of cash and debt.

The two rivals have been in merger talks in the past—as recently as 2023—but increasing competition from the likes of Elon Musk’s SpaceLink and Amazon’s efforts to launch its own fleet of satellites has upped the ante.  Intelsat’s emergence from bankruptcy in 2022 also improved the chance of a merger this time around, according to David Wajsgras, CEO of Intelsat.

“Over the past two years, the Intelsat team has executed a remarkable strategic reset,” Wajsgras said. “We have reversed a 10-year negative trend to return to growth, established a new and game-changing technology roadmap, and focused on productivity and execution to deliver competitive capabilities. The team today is providing our customers with network performance at five 9s and is more dedicated than ever to customer engagement and delivering on our commitments. 

SES chief executive Adel Al-Saleh also hailed the announcement, adding, "in a fast-moving and competitive satellite communication industry, this transaction expands our multi-orbit space network, spectrum portfolio, ground infrastructure around the world, go-to-market capabilities, managed service solutions, and financial profile,"

Based in Luxembourg, SES’s media reach in the EMEA region is vast, with its current fleet of 70 birds carrying more than 8,000 TV channels to more than 369 million homes globally—more than 3,000 of those in HD or UHD. Intelsat carries about 6,500 TV and radio channels reaching approximately 2 billion worldwide.

The combined company will have a fleet of more than 100 Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 26 Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites, giving it enhanced coverage, greater network resiliency, complementary spectrum (C-, Ku-, Ka-, Military Ka-, X-band, and Ultra High Frequency) rights, and improved service delivery, SES said. By end-2026, eight new GEO (including 6 software-defined) satellites and 7 new MEO (O3b mPOWER) satellites are expected to be launched adding further redundancy and additional growth capacity. 

For its media customers, SES says the combined company will add more offerings worldwide for  pay-TV operators, free-to-air/free-to-view platforms, public and private broadcasters, and sports & events, with improved redundancy features “via a competitive range of broadcast solutions, plus additional value-added services.”

Based on the 2024 financial outlook, the combined company is expected to generate approximately $4 billion in annual revenue (after adjusting for intercompany eliminations) and is expected to deliver low- to mid-single digit average annual growth over the medium-term the companies said, adding that they expect the two companies to invest combined CapEx of just over $1 billion in 2024.

Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, has further strengthened its management team in Asia with the appointment of Tan See Chai as Head of Sales – Distribution.  

Beginning at the start of January 2020 and based in Singapore, See Chai will report to Shakunt Malhotra, Globecast Asia MD. See Chai is responsible for sales of Globecast’s permanent distribution services to broadcasters, cable operators, news agencies, corporations as well as other relevant organisations across Asia and Asia-Pacific. This will include identifying and pursuing new business as well as maintaining and growing relationships with existing customers.  

Malhotra said, “We are pleased to welcome Tan to this important role. He has huge experience across the satellite industry, in particular, and this will come to the fore in this multifaceted position. As well as liaising with new and existing customers, he will also work closely with our Singapore-based operations and engineering group – where one of our three global Media Centers is located – as well as liaising with key personnel in other Global Business Units located around the world.” 

See Chai has over 25 years’ experience in the industry and was most recently Director of Sales with Telesat, a position he held for the past 30 months. In that role he was responsible for major satellite capacity sales across the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to that, he held a range of positions with Globecast, the last as Senior Director of Sales – Head of Occasional Services for Asia, a job he held for five years. He has also worked for Verestar and Echostar International, among others.  

See Chai said, “I’m genuinely excited to be appointed to this important position with my extensive experience across the industry being recognised as being invaluable to the role. I already have extensive experience with the company and I look forward to helping Globecast attain further growth across its distribution business.” 

Globecast, the global solutions provider for media, announced that the company has been selected by Orby TV to provide a wide range of turnkey broadcast media operational services for the nascent pay TV startup. Launched throughout the lower 48 United States in spring 2019, Orby TV offers a high-quality and affordable prepaid, pay-as-you-go satellite pay TV service directly to consumers at a low cost with no contract and no Internet service required.

Globecast is handling Orby TV’s full broadcast operations on a 24/7 basis at its Globecast Media Center in Culver City, CA. Using its extensive fiber and satellite network, Globecast is managing for Orby TV channel aggregation, providing Orby TV’s co-location services, handling technical operations and the uplinking of the channels to the high-powered Ku-band capacity on Eutelsat’s EUTELSAT 117 West A satellite at 117° West.  

This deal with Globecast allows Orby TV to benefit from advanced DTH delivery services, along with the satellite space segment and disaster recovery services from a geographically diverse third-party uplink site. This collaboration provides a complete and fully integrated satellite transmission infrastructure, giving Orby TV a fully managed and resilient transmission solution.  

Orby TV has two base programming packages priced at $40 (Essentials) or $50 (Extras) per month for up to four rooms, with optional premium network programming packages and low-cost DVR service available. All fees and taxes are included in the monthly prices. Local channels and unlimited use of the Orby TV interactive program guide is provided at no additional charge, even if the subscriber decides to turn off the monthly paid Orby TV service. 

Michael Thornton, CEO of Orby TV, said, “Globecast is providing to Orby TV complete and comprehensive broadcast operations. Globecast has vast experience in media management, with extensive programmer relationships and excellent fiber and satellite connectivity. Its expertise and strong operational performance was vital to the successful early days for Orby TV, as our satellite service gains a foothold across the United States with consumers looking for a combination of quality lean-back television, low prices, and flexibility in managing their payTV services from month-to-month.” 

Eddie Ferraro, Managing Director of Globecast Americas, said, “Orby TV has introduced a flexible pay-as-you-go model to the DTH marketplace and we are very pleased to have been selected as their technical services partner. We all know that new innovative ways of thinking need to be turned into reality across the pay-TV landscape in order to continue to drive consumer uptake, and Orby TV is doing a terrific job at that.” 

Arabsat is pleased to announce that Canal Algerie is now available on Arabsat-5C, the leading Arabic satellite platform for Direct-To-Home services over Africa.

Canal Algerie is an Algerian French-speaking public television channel, owned by EPTV (Algerian Public Television), who also owns A3 (available on BADR-6), Terrestrial TV, Tamazight TV and Coran TV. Canal Algerie broadcasts its programs 24/7 via different platforms all over the world.

Globecast is expanding its longstanding relationship with Arabsat, providing the technical broadcast solutions needed to deliver Canal Algerie across Africa. Arabsat-5C at 20° East is designed to serve the African market, matching the specific technical requirements with the growing demand across the continent. Arabsat -5C has a huge footprint, equipped with an innovative, powerful C-band beam which covers 100 per cent of African satellite TV households and needs only the minimum required dish size to receive its channels.

This new broadcast of Canal Algérie is part of the commercial contract between Télédiffusion d'Algérie, the Algerian public TV and radio broadcasting operator and Globecast.

Giorgio Giacomini, MD of Globecast in the Middle East, said, “We have a longstanding and very successful relationship with Arabsat. We are perfectly positioned to both launch new channels and expand the reach of existing channels, providing cost-effective end-to-end services to do so.”

“The launch of Canal Algerie on Arabsat-5C comes as part of our core mission to connect Arabic societies across the world; we provide African, Arab and Islamic communities with the largest possible choice of Free-To-Air TV channels in Africa,” says Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat president & CEO.

“Furthermore, the broadcasting of Canal Algerie via Arabsat-5C, highlights the continued successful Arabsat and Globecast partnership. This is expanding across additional territories beyond MENA, helping grow the reach of the existing Direct-to-Home portfolio of channels active on Arabsat-5C, and supporting the addition of more leading channels on Arabsat-5C in the very near future.” 

DishTV, provider of direct-to-home satellite (DTH) service to viewers in India, will deploy the MediaKind AVP 4000 video processing platform to deliver content to more than 23.5 million subscribers.

“Through the deployment of MediaKind’s AVP technology, we can enable the highest video quality for our consumers alongside far greater bandwidth efficiencies, thus enabling us to cost-effectively deliver the next generation services to our subscribers,” said DishTV Group CEO Anil Dua.

The DTH service provider is replacing legacy D2H technology with the MediaKind headend compression technology to make evolution to traditional broadcast and multiscreen service possible. The deployment of MediaKind’s AVP 4000 encoder will be used to support delivery of both DishTV brands to customers.

Deploying the MediaKind solution will allow DishTV to unify control and management of its two headends in an orchestrated way and drive greater operational efficiency, the company said. The AVP 4000 also will enable DishTV to achieve greater bandwidth efficiency and deliver higher picture quality.

The encoder has a modular architecture that enables on-site upgrades, which reduces maintenance time and service interruptions. The AVP 4000 encodes MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC and makes a smooth upgrade to 4K UHDTV easy, the company said.