News Analysis

Satellite Video and IPTV Gaining Fast on Cable Video

Campbell, Calif., November 2, 2011--The global pay TV market, including telco IPTV, cable and satellite video services, totaled $125 billion in the first half of 2011  and is forecast by Infonetics Research to grow to $353 billion by 2015. according toits Pay TV Services and Subscribers report, which forecasts and analyzes the telco Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable video, and satellite video services markets.

Satellite Operators Buck Global Economic Malaise

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., November 2, 2011--NSR's Global Assessment of Satellite Supply & Demand, 8th Edition study, released today, indicates that satellite operators continue to buck the global economic malaise. In 2010 global satellite operators saw a strong revenue increase of over US$550 million, derived from the lease of commercial satellite capacity. NSR projects that by 2020 capacity leasing revenues will reach US$17.2 billion, up from US$10.1 billion in 2010.

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Asian EO Markets Shifting Astrium Attention Eastward

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., October 27, 2011--After receiving a hit with very few contracts from the U.S. Government’s National GeoSpatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), Europe’s largest EO data provider, EADS Astrium, seems to have set sail east to Asia where demand for EO satellites and imagery is growing across the board.

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Mapping is Vital to Future Broadband Investment

Point Topic’s Oliver Johnson to review broadband mapping, the challenges involved and the solutions at ITU Telecom World 2011

London, UK, October 25, 2011--Broadband continues to spread throughout the world’s population, getting faster and benefitting millions, but according to leading analyst firm Point Topic this has also increased the need for accessible and transparent mapping. It is such mapping of take-up, coverage and speeds that highlights to governments and regulators the evident disparities of broadband availability and where investment funds are best spent.

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Online Video Now Reach 50 Percent of Total U.S. Population Each Month

Reston, VA, October 24, 2011-comScore, Inc. released data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that 182 million U.S. Internet users, nearly  50% of the U.S. population, watched online video content in September  for an average of 19.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in 39.8 billion video views.

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O3b's Latest Brazil Contract is another Building Block

by NSR

Cambridge, Mass., October 20, 2011-- In September 2011, O3b Networks announced a multi-year, multi-million dollar commitment with Ozônio Telecomunicações, a Brazilian multimedia communications and Internet service provider. The precise contract value was not disclosed, but it follows a series of O3b deals over the past two years.

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Hybrid Set-Top Boxes Empower Satellite Vendors to Compete in an On-Demand World

Scottsdale, Ariz., October 19, 2011--Hybrid set-top boxes are rapidly being deployed by pay-TV operators worldwide to help them deliver advanced services and manage bandwidth scarcity in broadcast networks, according to a recent report by ABI Research. In 2010, only 40% of set-top boxes worldwide featured hybrid capabilities, with many not yet enabled by software as operators were not ready to deploy IP video services. Hybrid box penetration will rise above 60% by 2016 as operators look at IP-based video on demand (VOD) and advertising solutions, as well as interactive content. Hybrid set-top boxes have the ability to decode video sent over the Internet or over two types of networks (such as satellite and terrestrial).

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42 Million Homes Now Watching Connected TV

Boston, MA - October 18, 2011 – The number of homes using the internet to watch television shows and movies on the TV screen has reached more than 42 million across the US and Europe, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) service. The report, “Multiscreen Connected TV: Assessing Device Usage and Ownership,” bases its findings on a survey of 4800 respondents.

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40% of Tablet and Smartphone Owners Use Them While Watching TV

New York City, October 13, 2011- American consumers are increasingly connected and are increasingly multitasking when it comes to multimedia.  Roughly 40 percent of tablet and smartphone owners in the U.S. used their devices daily while watching TV, while only 14 percent of eReader owners said they watched TV while using their device every day, according to a recent survey by Nielsen.

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Brazil: Latin America's Leading Satellite Market

by B. H. Schneiderman

Sao Paolo, Brazil, October 7, 2011--With the sluggish mature markets of North America and Europe, the focus has been on emerging regions such as Latin America which has been experiencing a major boom in the last few years.  The demand for satellite services in Latin America is only expected to grow exponentially in the next few years with the Soccer World Cup in 2014 and the  Olympics in 2016 slated to be held in Brazil.