[Satellite News 12-04-08] APT Satellite Satellite Holdings was formed in 1992 and provides satellite communication and TV broadcasting services to broadcasters and telecoms operators in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States via a fleet of five satellites.
    Cheng Guangren, president of APT, discussed growth opportunities for the company, particularly in China, as well as how the operator plans to tap into new markets in the region.

Cheng: Generally speaking, the demand for satellite transponder capacity in Asia has been on an upward trend in recent years and the demand will keep growing. However, the growth in the region is uneven. The demand for capacity in the Middle East and Southeast Asia is greater when compared with other regions in Asia. Broadcasting and telecommunications services are the main drivers for growth. Satellites play a major and important role in broadcasting. The applications of new business sectors for satellite such as HDTV, IPTV, mobile video/TV, mobile communications, emergency communications, etc., are areas we are going to be focused on.

Cheng: The FSS industry has grown rapidly over the past years. The market for FSS services in Asia has been developing very fast, especially in broadcasting industry. The change of television format from standard definition to high definition and the implementation of new DTH, IPTV and mobile TV platforms is leading to increased customers and demand in media sectors. Moreover, the introduction of IPStar by Thaicom has broadened the application of satellite usage in the telecoms sector. The establishment of China Direct Broadcast Satellite Co. Ltd., which is joint venture of China Satellite Communications Corp. and Sino Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. in 2007 has changed the landscape of market competition of the satellite industry in China.

Cheng: From the 1990s onwards, APT has been one of the FSS operators providing telecoms and TV broadcasting services in China. … APT is now undertaking important service tasks for The State Administration of Radio Film and Television on a number of projects, such as the CCT DTH Broadcasting platform, the Overseas TV Transmission Management platform and the China Remote Education platform. Following the rapid development of China’s economy, the scope and scale of satellite business will be further expanded. The demand of satellite services will continue to increase and APT, as the major player, will also continue to serve the China market.

Cheng: Despite the revived demand, Asian markets remain extremely competitive. Nowadays, the region is still experiencing supply over demand, thus, pricing pressure will remain a concern in the coming months. Asia is actually fragmented in many different markets and countries. Due to the different political, economical and cultural development of Asian countries, we see an imbalance of satellite development within countries in the region.

Cheng: We are planning the replacement of Apstar 2R together with our partners. The next generation satellite will carry a payload with higher power and broader coverage. To launch a new satellite, the most important consideration is to design the transponders in a way to fit customers’ need and to build the satellite with a high reliability heritage. We prefer not to use new technology, which does not have a proven flight history.

Cheng: We cannot see much opportunity for Ka-band in Asia in the short term, as it is more vulnerable to rain fade, compared to Ku-band. It has limitations to operate effectively in the region where there is heavy rainfall. At this moment, we have not seen any Asian operators who have aggressively invested in it.

Cheng: Consolidation is an inevitable trend in the satellite industry in Asia and the rest of the world. It achieves synergies by reducing risk and avoiding unnecessary price competition. However there are counter factors in the region that stop this from happening, particularly in terms of regulation. Operators become aware of the need of forming alliances and teaming up especially in the absence of head-on competition with each other in footprints and customer base. There will be more condosat agreements, which are jointly done by operators for risk and cost reduction.