Ovum has released its predictions for the key issues and events that will shape the telecommunications market in 2011. Broken down by analysts’ areas of coverage, the predictions provide a fascinating overview of the coming year for the telecoms industry.

Satellite and the Middle East/North Africa Horizontal and South East Asia Vertical Markets

Readers of this column who will be attending the CABSAT MENA & Satellite MENA 2011 exhibition at Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Center (DICEC) over 8th to 10th February will be interested to know that the Editor-in-Chief of this very publication will feature in a prominent role during one of the conferences embedded within the event.

The television industry is back on a growth path, with a global market of EUR 289.2 billion, which marks a 7.1% increase compared to 2009., according to the latest  World Television Market Report by IDATE.  This report analyses the overriding trends and changes taking place in the markets around the globe. It explores the driving forces behind the market’s growth and transformation, including an examination of the chief market trends, plus volume and value forecasts up to 2014 by geographical area and by country.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 6-9 was a dazzling, one can say  “over the top” way to start the new year (more on that later) for the broadcasting industry. The world’s largest consumer technology trade show, the CES was attended by over 140,000 industry professionals from over 80 countries.  No other industry show demonstrates the pulse of consumer demand for information and entertainment devices than the CES show. 

It seems like a natural progression to bring the Internet to every possible consumer electronics device available today, and the television set is no exception. Not to be left behind, many a DTH provider has provisioned Ethernet ports in the next generation of STBs, although the software and strategy to provide enhanced services may still be a few years away. As expected, North America and Western Europe are leading this market as viewers in these regions become more particular about what content they want as well as where and when they want it.

As noted in my column last month, the program for the recent GVF Oil & Gas Communications conference in Kuala Lumpur included a session entitled Cloud Computing and Future Oil & Gas Industry Networking.  This was the first time the topic of the Cloud had been introduced to any of the GVF-EMP vertical market-focused series of conferences, though not the first time that a Cloud-related topic had been included in one of the GVF’s horizontal-market events – specifically the MENASAT Summit held at the time of the Satellite MENA exhibiti

2010 has been another bumper year for the satellite operators, including the European operators. This is all good news in times where many other sectors are still struggling. However, there is a risk that good times breed complacency. 

IEEE GLOBECOM 2010 recently held its most successful meeting in the conference’s 53-year history with more than 2,500 scientists, researchers and academia attending nearly 2,000 presentations dedicated to the advancement of global communications designed to increase the quality of life worldwide.

Satellite Markets and Research are media partners for the following events where we will be participating as either exhibitors, speakers or session moderators. To book a meeting with Satellite Markets and Research in any of the shows below, e-mail: virgil@satellitemarkets.com 

The opportunities  for satellite communications in Africa has never been greater.  We saw a glimpse of this in June this year during the World Cup finals held in South Africa. The successful holding of the World Cup in South Africa demonstrated to the world that Africa is coming of age in the world’s stage.