There is a lot of news about how new low earth orbit (“LEO”) satellite projects, particularly front runner SpaceX’s Starlink system, are turning the satellite industry upside down. The Starlink team apparently broke the code on a path to consumer-priced hardware and is rolling out service region by region as it installs gateways around the…
Discovery deal announcement[1] ends AT&T’s designs on a vertically integrated media and distribution empire. It unravels years of deal-making under the leadership of former CEO Randall Stephenson less than a year after his retirement. This deal follows the $16 billion spin-off in February of AT&T’s video distribution assets, including DirecTV, U-Verse video, and streaming service…
The three major U.S. wireless carriers have scheduled special events starting today (Wednesday, March 10, 2021) with Verizon and followed by T-Mobile tomorrow and AT&T Friday to inform and reassure the investor community of their strategies after the $81 billion C-Band auction. The auction’s surprising size may necessitate some belt-tightening as the carriers begin to…
The FCC’s largest-ever auction of wireless spectrum ended on Friday with 280 MHz of C-Band spectrum fetching a record-setting $80,916,832,754. Demand in Smaller Markets Suggest New Entrants Bidding for the Partial Economic Area (PEA) sized geographies displayed the same trend we noted in other recent auctions (link to CBRS note) of increased interest outside the…
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 Summit Ridge Group, LLC announced today that Managing Director E. Barlow Keener, JD, CIPP, has been appointed Co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (“FCBA”) Wireless Telecommunications Committee for the 2020-2021 term. Additionally, Summit Ridge President J. Armand Musey, CFA, has been reappointed as a co-chair of the FCBA’s New…
We all knew that the Second Quarter of 2020 was going to be bad financially for broadcasters. And it was. But a review of FQ22020[1] financial results filed with the SEC by publicly-traded radio and television broadcasters shows that the hit was much more severe for radio than television broadcasters. Summit Ridge Group (SRG) reviewed…
The FCC’s CBRS auction results are in, showing an upswing of diverse interest in mid-band spectrum across industries and geographies. The national wireless operators Verizon and DISH dominated the auction, but cable and wireline telcos also showed healthy demand. However, this auction drew the most interest from the start with 271 qualified bidders (versus the…
CBRS auction (FCC Auction #105) bidding seems to deviate from the traditional trend of license territories in more densely populated territories clearing higher prices than those in less densely populated areas. Instead, pricing appears to be impacted by the availability of substitutable mid-band spectrum, primarily EBS, in the particular market. The deviation from pricing based…
NEW YORK, MAY 6, 2020 Summit Ridge Group, LLC announced today that William “Bill” Redpath has joined the firm today as a Managing Director. Bill will augment Summit Ridge’s media and telecom valuation and financial consulting practice. Bringing more than 30 years of industry valuation experience, Bill will enhance Summit Ridge Group’s growing leadership position in valuation and related financial consulting matters including transactional support, research and litigation support in the satellite, media and telecom sectors. Prior…
Summit Ridge Group, LLC today announced that it provided financial and mobile wireless industry analyses for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. NEW YORK, APRIL 21, 2020 — Summit Ridge Group, LLC, a leading provider of valuation and financial advisory services in the media, telecommunications and…