[11-15-07 – Satellite Today] Between 2006 and 2012, demand for C- and Ku-band transponders will increase at an average rate of 3.1 percent, according to a market survey released by NSR Nov. 14.
    Throughout the last year, NSR’s research indicated that direct-to-home (DTH) services saw the largest increase in transponder demand with nearly 79 new transponders of capacity put into use for expansion of existing DTH packages and for the launch of new services. The Global Assessment of Satellite Demand (GASD) also forecasts that DTH services will have the highest rate of demand growth at 6.6 percent and add the second greatest quantity of newly leased capacity demand, or more than 300 transponders of capacity.
    "Only video distribution for services such as free-to-air television, cable headends, terrestrial TV channel redistribution and specialty/ethnic bouquets will add more C- and Ku-band transponder demand globally,” Patrick French, senior analyst for NSR and author of the report, said in a statement. "An average of 75 to 80 new C- and Ku-band [transponders] of capacity for video distribution services will be leased each year through 2012."
    NSR expects North America to contribute the most new commercial Ka-band capacity demand as worldwide leased Ka-band bandwidth climbs to 68.4 gigabits per second (Gbps) in 2012, up from 13.7 Gbps in 2006. NSR’s best estimate is that the commercial Ka-band market generated about $32.9 million in revenue for the industry in 2006, and these revenues will jump to $369.4 million in 2012.