Research and Markets has announced the addition of Screen Digest’s new report "Mobile Market Monitor: TV H2 2008" to their offering.

The demand for mobile satellite services (MSS) in the maritime sector is expected to escalate due to crew welfare solutions, as users are beginning to expect Internet connectivity and access as the norm. As both equipment and solution prices reduce, smaller vessels are beginning to embrace satellite communication services. The new generation of Internet savvy seafarers expects connectivity wherever they are, to stay in touch with family and friends.Ship owners are actively adopting satellite communication to attract and retain skilled crew in this highly competitive marketplace.

In the course of my work as a consultant and executive recruiter based in Asia, I have spoken to over 150 satellite and digital broadcast sales, business development and senior management professionals in the last six months on the prospects of the Asian market. The consensus among key satellite executives is that the business of satellite communications in Asia continues to grow and is better off than other regional markets by "a significant margin."

The bleak market outlook in the last quarter of 2008 did not seem to deter the growth of pay TV. Service operators, especially those in mature high-speed Internet economies – many of which are in the Asia-Pacific region – continue to strive towards providing interactive bi-directional television. According to new pay-TV market data from ABI Research, APAC will continue leading subscription growth, delivering a 37% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next three years.

Of the nominally US$787 billion that makes up the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, less than 1% has been directed to be used for funding a variety of broadband initiatives throughout the U.S. Yet, it seems that the broadband subsidy funding has attracted much more than its fair share of attention with all types of projects and proposals being floated and developed by entities large and small across the country.

The number of broadband enabled airplanes will increase from 25 in 2008 to 800 in 2009, reports In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com. As a result, broadband hungry airline passengers will generate over US$ 49 million worldwide in 2009. The in-flight broadband market is still emerging and will grow well beyond $1 billion annually by 2012.

Ovum’s newly released mobile broadband forecasts show that users accessing the Internet via mobile broadband enabled laptops and handsets will generate revenues of US $137 billion globally in 2014, over 450% more than in 2008. However, operators will need to content themselves with the fact that user growth will be far faster than revenue growth, meaning more users and more data traffic but declining ARPUs.

When looking at the pie of advanced satellite equipment market, it is not surprising to find that the lion’s share of projected sales falls within the DTH sector. DTH operators need MPEG-4 and DVB-S2 technologies to offer advanced TV offerings and differentiate against cable triple-play and VOD. Such differentiating consumer services enabled by advanced receiver hardware play a particular relevance in the saturated North American pay TV market, exercising upward pressure on subscriber acquisition costs, but offset by declining costs of advanced hardware.

Anyone in the satellite industry more than six months has probably heard of Ka-band satellites. Anyone (like most of us) who has been in the industry a bit longer knows that the benefits and advantages of Ka-band spotbeam satellites have been endlessly discussed in conferences, meetings, and an uncountable number of other industry events for well over a decade. Most often cited, to the point that it has essentially become an industry mantra, is that Ka-band satellites can dramatically lower the cost per bit of delivering a satellite service.