US researcher NSR has counted up all the satellite operator revenues and concluded this week that commercial satellite operators are in rude health and had a great 2008, with revenues up substantially. It’s a far cry from 5 years ago when every satellite operator was bought and sold by private equity groups.
NSR points out that most satellite operators have yet to report any substantial damage from the global economic crisis and, assuming recovery is solidly in place by the end of 2009, it appears that they will largely escape unscathed.
There is still some risk because satellite capacity leasing is historically a trailing indicator of economic strength, yet the majority of the business is built on TV watching, and this market has only increased in the last year.
NSR reckons that some business areas are slowing such as corporate VSAT networking services, but this has been offset by growth in other segments like backhaul or government leasing and it predicts a spike in demand in the 2010 to 2011 time period, in many markets as new capacity becomes available and the improving business climate leads to re-launching of delayed spending or investment for future growth.
To us it is all about the shift to HD. What easier way to delivery HD than to take huge swathes of the various satellite line of sight spectrum and allocate big chunks of it to HD channels. Regardless how those HD channels are delivered to the home, they are all largely distributed around the planet to TV operators using satellite.
NSR also continues to track developments in the satellite broadband Internet access services segment, which could lead to a major shift in how parts of the market are seen in the future, as well as other services like maritime, aeronautical and other mobility services.
All commercial satellite leasing generated $9.1 billion in 2008 and will increase to $13.8 billion by 2018, a rise of 50%, the company says.