Active Commercial FSS Operators See Revenue Growth

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FSS operator Intelsat‘s Riverside, Calif. Teleport.

Image credit: Intelsat

[Satellite TODAY 07-11-13] Euroconsult’s newly released research report reveals that 86 percent of all 37 active commercial FSS operators saw revenue growth in 2012, with 13 operators reaching 10 percent or more. However, approximately half of the operators experienced slower revenue growth than the previous year.

The operator landscape is currently seeing a growing number of active satellite operators and an increased appetite for innovative growth strategies. The industry has recently experienced new partnerships between satellite operators, investment in new generation satellite systems such as HTS multi-spot-beam architectures, and new revenue streams including hosted payloads or deals involving aging satellites and orbital slot rights, according to the report.

Officials contend that they have observed a new trend where “more operators are welcoming HTS capacity as part of their long-term agenda and growth strategy,” said Wei Li, senior consultant at Euroconsult. “A number of operators have recently announced HTS payloads as part of their future satellites, including Intelsat, SES, Arabsat, Spacecom, Asiasat, and others,” he added.

Another trend observed by Euroconsult among FSS operators is the increasing amount of innovative partnerships between operators. Bulk satellite procurement partnerships, as seen with ABS and Satmex, and satellite and orbital slot sharing agreements, as seen with Measat and Newsat Jabiru, are becoming more common within the industry.

The number of satellite operators are poised to grow in the coming years with multiple emerging operators having announced plans to launch their first satellites. Besides several new commercial operators, such as O3b, the report states there are an increasing number of government-owned national operators in emerging regions such as Africa and Latin America.