Advantech Wireless Inc., a privately-held Canadian corporation and manufacturer of Satellite, RF Equipment and Microwave Systems, announced today that its sales for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2014 were increased by 22% over previous year results. The April 30th 2014 year end is the 4th consecutive year of profitability for the company. 

Lockheed Martinhas entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of the Astrotech Space Operations business of Astrotech Corporation for US$ 61 million. Astrotech Space Operations is a satellite launch preparation service provider, from final testing and fueling to encapsulation and day-of launch operations.

The set-top box market has generally maintained historical leadership positions based on a cable, satellite or IPTV focus.Of the top five set-top box vendors—Arris, Cisco, Technicolor, Pace and Echosta—most are heavily weighted to one sector, or, in some cases, have robust proportions serving two of the three sectors.This definition won’t meet the needs of modern operators today who are looking at extending their services over multiple networks.

Global pay TV revenues [subscription fees and on-demand movies and TV episodes] will climb to $209 billion in 2020, up from US$193 billion in 2013, according  to a new report from Digital TV Research. The Digital TV World Revenue  Forecasts report states that the fast growth years are over - as a point of  comparison revenues grew by $24 billion between 2010 and 2013. 

C-COM Satellite Systems Inc., a provider of mobile auto-deploying satellite antenna systems, and ViaSat Inc.have signed an agreement to develop a low profile, Ka-band mobile antenna system for the emerging commercial Ka-band services market. C-COM will manufacture, sell and support this new on-the-move antenna product under ViaSat license.

C-COM sells its highly acclaimed Comm-On-The Pause auto-deploy iNetVu antennas worldwide and plans to use its existing distribution channel to commercialize the new Comm-On-The-Move mobile antenna.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) today released its 2014 State of the Satellite Industry Report, showing a three percent growth rate in world satellite industry revenues in 2013.Globally, 2013 revenues for the satellite industry totaled US$ 195.2 billion, up from US$ 188.8 billion the previous year.

AT&T and DIRECTV announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire DIRECTV in a stock-and-cash transaction for US$ 95 per share based on AT&T’s Friday closing price. AT&T will also assume DIRECTV debt bringing the total transaction cost to US$ 67.1 Billion.

Eutelsat Communications today reported revenues for the third quarter and nine months ended 31 March 31, 2014. Revenues for the first nine months were up by 2.5%, at constant currency excluding non-recurring and Satmex revenues. Third quarter revenues were up by 1.5%, and by 6% including Satmex, which was consolidated from January 1, 2014. The total order backlog stood at the  €5.8 billion.

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) today applauded  the publication of new regulations that reform the export controls for satellites and related items.  The U.S. Departments of State and Commerce each published rules that will transfer commercial communications satellites and some remote sensing satellites, along with tens of thousands of  associated parts, components, and ground terminals from the more restrictive U.S. Munitions  List to the Commerce Control List. 

Hosted payloads and small satellites share a common mission – to enable greater access to space for an ever-expanding variety of commercial, government and scientific customers. In an effort to include everyone in the conversation of future-changing technology, the producers of the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition expanded and revamped the program of its annual Hosted Payload Summit, which will now be called the Hosted Payload and Smallsat Summit. This industry-leading event will be held October 15, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Washington, located at 1000 H Street NW, Washington, D.C.