[Satellite News 04-22-09] The link-up between Yahsat and SES Astra to create a company to target DTH markets in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asia, announced by the companies April 20, could be a smart move, according to leading industry analysts who gave Satellite News their opinions on yesterday’s announcement.
    Patrick French, senior analyst at NSR, said he was not surprised by the announcement given the demand for video in the region. “I thought for a while there needed to be some video slots for the region. In that sense, seeing this announcement with SES Astra and Yahsat did not completely surprise me. It would have been an obvious move for SES Astra as they have overlap coverage from their main slots, but don’t have a truly Middle East focus. They have the experience and the desire and Yahsat has the new satellites and the need to fill up that capacity. It makes a nice complimentary match for the two of them to work together,” he said.
    Jawad Abbassi, CEO of Arab Advisors said he was also not surprised. “No, I was not surprised by this. It happens in the industry. For example, in the Middle East, we have seen Nilesat use Eutelsat capacity. We have also seen Arabsat utilize Eutelsat capacity,” he said.
The new company will operate under the YahLive brand and will offer DTH television capacity and services to more than two dozen countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South West Asia.
    YahLive will offer DTH satellite services to free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters in these regions. It will own and commercialize 23 BSS-transponders on the Yahsat 1A satellite to be positioned at the 52.5 degrees East orbital position and operating in the Ku-band frequency.
    French believes it was just a matter of time before another operator really targeted the video market. “There is probably a need for a new video hotspot to serve the region. You have Arabsat at 26 degrees East, Nilesat at 7 degrees West, they are the two main ones. I predicted that there would be a new hotspot would be developed. It is a question of who would be able to do that. It probably wasn’t going to be Nilesat as they don’t have much capacity or an orbital slot, but Arabsat is certainly trying to strengthen and build-up its 30.5 degrees East slot and it is trying to re-establish its 20 degrees East slot. But, it is also an opportunity for Yahsat,” he said.
    For Yahsat, the deal offers it a kick-start into the broadcast market and both French and Abbassi see a lot of benefit for Yahsat as a result. “Yahsat is a very new operator. They don’t have a huge history. Partnering with an operator with a lot of experience like SES Astra kills two birds with one stone. They guarantee the capacity utilization of their satellite and they have a good operator which already has a strong history and client base,” said Abbassi.
    French said the deal makes sense for SES Astra due to its video heritage, strong knowledge and customer relations with broadcasters. “It seems like a match. Yahsat could have gone it alone, but the way to make money in our industry is to fill up the satellites as soon as possible. The quicker you get that fill rate up, the better. Yahsat is a new company. It doesn’t have those type of long term customer relationships. They could have certainly gone it alone but it would have taken time to develop those relationships. This potentially shortens the process to fill up the satellite,” he said.
    According to French, the challenge now will be to make the partnership successful and the jury is out until it gets deals with broadcasters and content providers.
    “Announcing a video hotspot does not make it a video hotspot. They still have work to do to get broadcasters to go there. It will only be a threat to Nilesat and Arabsat if they are successful. They have built the playing field, but now they have got to get the audience to come. It will be a smart move if it works out. It is really hard to tell how partnerships will do in practice,” he said.
    Abbassi said the Middle East satellite market is in really good shape right now. “Nilesat and Arabsat are in very good shape. Arabsat has a lot of its capacity reserved ahead of launch of its satellites. One characteristic of the Middle East satellite market, is there is plenty of demand for capacity,” he said.