Commercial Sat operators grow revenues by $635mn

Commercial satellite operators grew capacity leasing revenues by $635 million between 2010 and 2011 according to Northern Sky Research.

The report also found that new markets like mobility and other high value services are being targeted to ensure sustained revenue for the next few years.

"The Ku-band market will continue to be the main growth engine for the commercial satellite market for the coming ten years", noted Patrick M. French, NSR senior analyst and the report author. "The direct-to-home (DTH) TV market alone could add US$1.4 billion in net new revenues by 2021 out of US$4.3 billion expected in total for the Ku-band segment. Solid Ku-band revenue gains are also expected from the video distribution, enterprise data, commercial mobility and gov/mil verticals."

Further information detailed in the report is that the commercial satellite industry is beginning to grasp the significance of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and the potential to boost growth in other market verticals. The report also found that all HTS markets combined could bring in approximately $1.9 billion in revenues over the next 10 years.

"The widebeam Ka-band market, especially for the gov/mil segment in the Middle East, is also beginning to get some real traction for the industry even if total revenue growth is expected to be substantially smaller that the Ku-band or HTS side of the business," added French. "There should also be continued strong growth in C-band video distribution services driven by expanding carriage of HD and SD channels, plus slow ramp up of 3D and eventually Ultra HD channels."