News Analysis

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., July 12, 2011--O3b signed a "multi-year, multi-million dollar reseller agreement" with Sky Fiber Corporation in June 2011 following on a similar announcement with Mavoni Technologies, South Africa in May 2011. Yet, beyond these two recent contracts and one additional framework agreement with Etisalat, O3b has been fairly quiet in terms of client deals since it completed its funding in November 2010. NSR’s take on this period of contracting calm is that O3b has largely depleted the early adopter market, and most of the rest of the industry is now waiting for O3b to make concrete progress in the construction and launch of its network as well as - and especially key in NSR’s view - provide detailed information on the cost and performance of its upcoming Tier 2 ground equipment.

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., June 23, 2011--George Bernard Shaw once said that “if history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience”. NSR is not as critical about the future of the launch industry for North America and Western Europe but does extend a word of caution towards the development of next-gen launchers.

by Samantha Braverman, Sr. Project Researcher, Harris Interactive

New York,  June 15, 2011 - The invention of the DVR system presented a hurdle for television advertisers, as they worried their valued audience would fast-forward through their messages. While those concerns may have merit, a recent Adweek/Harris Poll shows that regardless of the ability to use a DVR system, Americans may not be giving their undivided attention to their TV screens. According to the recent survey, while watching TV most Americans also surf the Internet (56%) and many do other activities like read a book, magazine or newspaper (44%), go on a social networking site (40%) or text on their mobile phone (37%). These are some of the findings of a recent Adweek/Harris Poll survey of 2,309 U.S. adults surveyed online between May 24 and 26, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Singapore, June 9, 2011--The worldwide pay-TV industry continues to grow in terms of both subscriber numbers and service revenue. “At the end of first quarter of 2011, pay-TV service revenue generated from satellite, cable, terrestrial and telco TV totaled $53 billion. That is a 10% increase from the first quarter of 2010,” says Jason Blackwell, digital home practice director at ABI Research.

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass. June 1, 2011-A recent agreement to build a submarine cable by 2012 between two Islands, (Vanuatu and Fiji) emphasizes a clear trend: remoteness of a territory is not a barrier for cable connections as long as the market is valuable. Another announcement from the ITU on the sharp decrease of fixed broadband prices (50% between 2008 and 2010) with the 10 countries in the world with the biggest relative change in price all located in Africa illustrates the effect of the many cable projects that were completed recently in Africa, formerly the last satellite IP trunking stronghold.

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., May 25, 2011--Recent discoveries in remote areas such as the Arctic are pushing the Oil & Gas (O&G) sector further away from terrestrial service, which drives satellite connectivity in the digital oilfield.  NSR heard three distinct messages at the Global VSAT Forum’s (GVF) 4th Annual Oil and Gas Communications Europe 2011 conference in Aberdeen on 17 – 18th May. The conference offered an opportunity to hear firsthand accounts of three clear trends affecting this market: O&G industry bandwidth needs are ever increasing, consolidation on the satellite service side has opened previously closed doors to smaller providers, and there are concerns over High Throughput Satellite (HTS) Ka-Band offerings.