Intelsat Cements Presence in Latin America

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[Satellite TODAY Insider 04-16-12] Intelsat has announced details of a slew of new agreements with broadcasters/media companies in Latin America. The operator announced details of recent agreements with Discovery Communications, TIBA in Argentina and Overon America as it continues to see strong demand for capacity in the region. Intelsat will be launching four satellites in the next year, which will bring even more capacity to the region.

The operator enjoyed a strong year in 2011. Carmen Gonzalez-Sanfeliu, Intelsat’s regional vice president for Latin America and Caribbean told Via Satellite last year, “Brazil is our largest growth market in the region. Colombia, Peru, Chile and Argentina also are showing significant gains. Our market share in the region is more than 40 percent.”

Predicting the demand for services is never easy. “A perennial challenge for any satellite operator is gauging future customer demand. For example, in the media sector we must plan ahead to ensure we have enough capacity to meet demand for rapidly advancing technologies that require more bandwidth, such as HDTV. New bandwidth-compression technology can relieve the pressure, however, as TV broadcasting moves from analog to digital — especially in underdeveloped markets such as Latin America — demand has the potential to grow exponentially,” adds Gonzalez-Sanfeliu.

The demand for satellite capacity in the region is likely to remain strong. At the recent SATELLITE 2012 event, executives on the panel looking into satellite services in the region were optimistic that there would continue to be growth, despite a rocky past. “This is a fantastic time for satellites in Latin America. As a service provider, the lack of capacity is actually the major problem I am facing,” commented Marzio Laurenti, CEO, Telespazio Brasil. “The issue of supply and demand (in Latin America) is really a fundamental question for this industry. Unfortunately, there was a period of time that the investment community did not believe in our region,” said Javier Recio, vice president of sales, Satmex.