At the 2010 NAB Show, World Teleport Association was co-producer of the Destination Broadband Theater in the Upper South Hall. In 16 panel sessions over three days, we focused on two closely-related topics: delivering and monetizing video content delivered over broadband, and how traditional television distribution is evolving in response to the broadband revolution.
How Davids Make Profits While Goliaths Fight
The consumer and Small Office Home Office (SOHO) satellite market has followed the pattern of virtually all the other communications industries:
· Initial market acceptance
· Mass adoption of the technology
· Market dominance by a few large companies
· Fierce competition and intense marketing for the remaining market
The World Teleport Association (WTA) announced the release of a new white paper, Strategies for Sustainability. The report presents WTA’s findings and outcomes from its March 2010 Member Forum on the Green Teleport as well as in-depth interviews conducted with early adopters of advanced energy management solutions among the Association’s membership.
Much attention is being paid to consumer broadband service via satellite as this has the potential to match the US penetration of DTH TV and Satellite Radio (DARS). However, there is still a very substantial ongoing business using various types of VSATs to serve commercial and govern-ment needs in developed and developing regions of the world. After all, satellite communications is the best alternative if modern terrestrial infrastructure is not available.
With more than half of the 85 million strong population being under the age of 30 years, Vietnam’s subscription-TV business was given a boost at the CASBAA Vietnam’s Pay-TV Industry Seminar in Hanoi.
The seminar, themed "Pay-TV on the Rise", brought together more than 200 Vietnamese government officials, international industry decision makers and media to have a 360-degree analysis of the Vietnam pay-TV sector, including business models; the channel licensing process; intellectual property rights; copyright challenges; the prospects for Cable, DTH, IPTV and content production.
When I think about 3D the British expression "two swallows don’t make a summer" keeps coming to mind. In the last few months we’ve indeed seen two "swallows": "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland", both of which generated the vast majority of their significant revenue (they were respectively the 1st and 22nd highest grossing films ever) from the theaters showing the movies in 3D. "Call of the Wild" also in 3D was released six months before "Avatar" but only managed to produce box office revenues of around $30,000 in the US.
During the most recent broadcasting trade shows since the IBC in Amsterdam last fall, 3D technology has been the buzz including the NAB show in Las Vegas early this month. The blockbuster success of 3D movies such as Avatar help fuel interest in 3D technology among tech-savvy consumers, but will 3D—essentially a recycled technology that was first introduced in the 50s and became a passing fad—deliver the goods this time around?
The Connection is in the Satcoms. In my various recent columns in this space I have focused on important, and ongoing, key thematic developments in the communications solutions marketplace which are separately, and collectively, creating manifold expansion opportunities for the satellite communications industry to leverage the several advantages that it has over all other communications technologies and platforms.
The issue of inadequate bandwidth in the world very small aperture terminal (VSAT) market has experienced a conflicting impact: a spurt in service revenues and, simultaneously, a dip in the sales of equipment or hardware. VSAT providers, while pleased with the hike in service revenues, are wary of pricing many potential, cost-sensitive VSAT users out of the market.
A telco PR executive once remarked to me that satellite was like a solution always looking for a problem. Given that he was looking to represent my satellite consultancy firm, I thought this was an odd way to earn my business! Dents to my ego aside, what this guy was reflecting is simply the wider telecommunications industry and a great many potential customers’ perception of satellite – VSAT communications in particular. How things have changed!
