86% of All 37 Active Commercial FSS Operators Saw Revenue Growth in 2012

 

July 10, 2013

According to Euroconsult's newly released research report,Company Profiles: Analysis of FSS Operators,86% of all 37 active commercial FSS operators saw revenue growth in 2012, with 13 operators reaching 10% 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 including 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.

We see a 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.“

Another trend that has been observed among FSS operators is the increasing amount of innovative partnerships between operators, including bulk satellite procurement partnerships, as seen with ABS and Satmex; satellite and orbital slot sharing agreements, as seen with Measat and Newsat Jabiru, etc.; and other innovative forms of collaboration between operators.

Hosted payloads also remain a prominent topic for operators as a potential source of revenues and a smart way to reduce capital expenditures. The recently announced strategic partnership between AsiaSat and GeoMetWatch to host weather payloads in 2016 is a good example of this trend.

The number of satellite operators is 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, there are an increasing number of government-owned national operators in emerging regions. The list includes upcoming national operators in countries such as Sri Lanka, Laos, Bolivia, Ukraine, Angola, etc. New operators are also emerging in countries that have already established commercial FSS operators such as Mexico (MEXSAT), Australia (NBN) or Brazil.