In response to continued strong growth in the maritime communications market, GVF-EMP are staging the latest in their conference series with ‘Maritime Insights Europe 2013: GVF Broadband Maritime Offshore & Oceanic ~ Networking towards a high throughput space’, to take place on 25th & 26th June at the Strand Palace Hotel, London, United Kingdom.

Turkey’s satellite television provider Digitürk is up for sale following  a Turkish state fund’s seizure of 12 companies owned by the pay TV operator’s majority owner, Çukurova Group.

Bloomberg has reported that Sakir Ercan Gül, chairman of the Turkish Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), has revealed that the TMSF is entering into talks with Providence Equity Partners, which holds the 47 percent of Digitürk not owned by Çukurova, with a view to selling either Çukurova’s stake or organizing a joint sale of the company.

SES announced today that it has further increased its household reach in the Benelux countries in 2012 to over 1.2 million homes. With a 19 percent increase compared to the previous year, Belgium topped the Benelux growth in ASTRA satellite homes. In Luxemburg, the number of household receiving programmes directly from the SES fleet increased by 16 percent. These – and other new details – are the result of the annual market research SES Satellite Monitor.

Under the royal patronage of HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society, the 10th Convergence Summit, will take place in Amman on the 3rd and 4th of June 2013 at the Four Seasons Hotel. Her Royal highness will be addressing the summit at the opening ceremony.

In another bold attempt Charles Ergen, chairman of Dish Network Corp., has offered to buy broadband company LightSquared Inc., which is in bankruptcy proceedings,  for its wireless airwaves for US$ 2 Bil.

Reports from Reuters and Bloomberg say Ergen offered $2 billion for LightSquared spectrum.

Come 18 – 21 June this year, BroadcastAsia, Asia’s largest integrated trade show for the Film and TV industries will return with an impressive international line-up of exhibitors yet. The show has attracted more than 80 new exhibitors, in addition to repeat participation from top-notch companies from the industry, making up a total of more than 700 exhibitors from 45 countries and regions. The new exhibitors are Autodesk, Ericsson, Hybrid, Ikegami, Jebsen & Co, Orad, PCCW, RGB Networks, Siemens Convergence Creators GmbH, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Tsushinki, Yamaha Music (Asia) and more.

NSR’s Satellite Manufacturing and Launch Services (SMLS), 3rd Edition report describes the difficulties of an industry facing a low demand period and the technologies and changes that will greatly improve the industry value proposition over the next decade.

Thailand-based satellite operator Thaicom posted a net income of US$11.08 million (THB 330 million) in the first quarter, up from US$1.41 million (THB 42 million) in the year-ago period equivalent to an increase by almost 300 percent.

Total revenues were US$64.18 million (THB 1.91 billion) versus US$61.15 million (THB 1.82 billion) a year earlier but sales and services income slipped to THB 1.77 billion from US$59.47 million (THB 1.78 billion). Gross profit totalled US$23.55 million (THB 701 million), up from US$20.23 million (THB 602 million) in the year-ago quarter.

SES S.A. has posted revenues of US$568.12 million (€440.8 million) for its latest quarterly results, down 2.1 percent year-on-year. EBITDA for the three months ended March 31 reached US$414.00 million (€321.2 million), down 4.8 percent.

ViaSat Inc., a provider of satellite and other wireless networking systems and services, earned profits of US$ 1.9 million in its fiscal fourth quarter after a boost from new contracts.

The company said it earned 4 cents per share for the quarter that ended March 29 compared with a loss of US$ 7.4 million, or 17 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. It earned 19 cents per share when excluding one-time items, versus a loss of a penny per share last year.