The United States remains the leader in space competitiveness, but is the only nation to decline for seven straight years. As other countries enhance their space capabilities while the U.S. navigates uncertain transitions, its currently unique convening power in setting the global space agenda is not guaranteed, according to the just relesed Futron 2014 Space Competitiveness Index.

Highlights of the Index include:

A new research report by Euroconsult  provides a comprehensive analysis of the how and why of the military's usage of satellite communications, which saw tremendous growth over the past 15 years. Satellite capacity usage by the U.S. DoD has increased fivefold over 2000-2012 to over 10GHz, primarily driven by the two large conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

New figures released by ITU today indicate that, by end 2014, there will be almost 3 billion Internet users, two-thirds of them coming from the developing world, and that the number of mobile-broadband subscriptions will reach 2.3 billion globally. Fifty-five per cent of these subscriptions are expected to be in the developing world.

“The newly released ICT figures confirm once again that information and communication technologies continue to be the key drivers of the information society,” said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré.

The global pay-TV subscriber base increased over 5% in 2013, raising the total to 901.1 million. However the average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped slightly to US$ 23.80 in 2013 from $24.10 in 2012.

“In general, the pay-TV market grew both in terms of subscribers and service revenue across all pay-TV platforms. Overall pay-TV service revenue reached almost US$ 250 billion in 2013,” said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting, ABI Research.

NSR's newly released Wireless Backhaul, Trunking and Video Offload via Satellite, 8th Edition finds a diverse set of opportunities for satellite companies worldwide. These varied market segments are expected to grow at mixed levels, characterized by serious opportunities, threats and risks over the long term, with NSR projecting growth from $1.4 billion in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2023.

The different market cycles of each target segment pose unique opportunities and challenges:

MarketsandMarkets forecasts the US$ 25.33 billion in 2014 to US$ 54.00 billion> in 2019. In terms of geographies, North America (NA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) is expected to be the biggest market in terms of revenue contribution, while Latin America (LA) and Europe are expected to experience increased market traction, during the forecast period.

Following OTT and content licensing announcements at NAB and the Aereo, Inc. case before the Supreme Court,Parks Associates today announced a new report Trends in Content Licensing that analyzes television and movie licensing trends and the impact of multiscreen, time-shifting, and the demand for exclusive content. The firm reports pay-TV penetration remains fairly steady at around 85% of U.S. broadband households but over-the-top (OTT) video use is increasing on multiple devices, particularly with younger viewers.

A new report by Research and Markets entitled "Global Set Top Box Market 2014-2018"  forecasts the global Set Top Box (STB)  market to grow at a CAGR of 2.14 percent over the period 2014-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increase adoption of HD STB. The Global STB market has also been witnessing the growth in the number of pay TV subscribers. However, the high cost of advanced set top boxes could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

Global smartphone shipments showed better than expected growth in 1Q14, rising 1.13% QoQ to 266.9 million units, according to market intelligence provider TrendForce. “The Q1 momentum came mostly from the emerging market sectors and China,” noted Avril Wu, Assistant Vice President of TrendForce. “The Chinese smartphone manufacturers’ increased 4G smartphone production is key to the smartphone industry higher than anticipated Q1 growth.”

The latest Point Topic Global Broadband Report reveals that there were 678.6m subscribers worldwide at the end of 2013. The report tracks the take-up of fixed broadband services at country and technology level across the globe and the latest growth trends up to the end of Q4 2013.

 The growth in Q4 2013 was lower than both the proceeding quarter and the corresponding quarter in 2012. Other key findings of the report include: