Satellite Television (DBS, DTH, DSat, DVB-S, DVB-S2) News

Sky Deutschland adds multiroom box to Sky Q offering
May 23, 2019 – One year after the launch of Sky Q by Sky Deutschland, the company has added a Sky Q Mini Box for multiroom viewing and expanded platform support for the Sky Q app, so that customers can enjoy their Sky programming on even more devices at home.
News categories: Sky Deutschland, Julia Laukemann, Apps, Austria, Digital TV, Germany, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart Home

Openview STB activations growing at 35,000 per month
May 23, 2019 – eMedia Holdings has released results for the year ended 31 March 2019. Openview set-top box activations continue to grow at an average of 35,000 per month. At the end of the period, a total of 1,574,395 (2018: 1,149,217) boxes have been activated.
News categories: eMedia Holdings, Digital TV, Results, Satellite, South Africa, Subscribers

Telcos to dominate Western European pay TV
May 23, 2019 – Reflecting the rising importance of the telcos, IPTV is gaining subscribers in Western Europe at the expense of the other pay TV platforms. IPTV overtook satellite TV in 2015 and will be approaching cable by 2024, according to Digital TV Research.
News categories: Digital TV Research, Simon Murray, Cable TV, Digital TV, Europe, IPTV, Satellite, Subscribers, Terrestrial

Beximco launches AKASH DTH in Bangladesh
May 16, 2019 – Beximco Communications has launched a DTH service in Bangladesh under the brand name AKASH. The service will be available from May 19 at authorised retails in 20 districts. AKASH includes a large bouquet of Bangladeshi and foreign TV channels.
News categories: Beximco, Bangladesh, Digital TV, Satellite

Pay TV subscribers in Romania up 3% in 2018
May 15, 2019 – According to ANCOM, in 2018 the number of pay TV subscribers in Romania grew by 3%, reaching a total of 7.64 million. The trend of previous years continued with subscribers shifting from satellite to cable and IPTV.
News categories: ANCOM, Sorin Grindeanu, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, Satellite, Subscribers

Cyfrowy Polsat contract pay TV subscribers down 22,000 in 1Q 2019
May 14, 2019 – Cyfrowy Polsat Group has reported results for the first quarter of 2019. The company finished the quarter with 5.1 million contract pay TV subscribers, down 21,000 versus the end of 2018, and up 93,000 year-on-year. In March 2019 Cyfrowy Polsat introduced its EVOBOX IP set-top box.
News categories: Cyfrowy Polsat, Digital TV, IPTV, OTT, Poland, Results, Satellite, Set Top Box, Subscribers

Major U.S. pay TV providers lost ~1,325,000 subscribers in 1Q 2019
May 14, 2019 – Leichtman Research Group (LRG) has found that the largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. lost about 1,325,000 net video subscribers in 1Q 2019, compared to a pro forma net loss of about 305,000 subscribers in 1Q 2018.
News categories: Leichtman Research, Bruce Leichtman, Cable TV, Digital TV, IPTV, OTT, Satellite, Subscribers, USA

1.2 million pay TV subscribers at Dialog Axiata
May 14, 2019 – Dialog Axiata has announced results for the three months ended 31st March 2019. Dialog Television (“DTV”), continued to consolidate its leadership position in the Digital Pay Television space with a subscriber growth of 16% YoY to reach 1.2 million.
News categories: Dialog, Digital TV, Results, Satellite, Sri Lanka, Subscribers

Samsung, Spin Digital and SES showcase 8K content via satellite
May 14, 2019 – At its annual Industry Days event, SES showed a demo of an 8K signal broadcast directly to a TV with a built-in satellite receiver. The broadcast used Spin Digital for encoding and a Samsung TV to receive and decode the signal.
News categories: SES S.A, Spin Digital, Samsung, Thomas Wrede, Mauricio Alvarez-Mesa, John Adam, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Luxembourg, Satellite, Smart TV, Worldwide