The flame for 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrived from Greece to Japan on March 20th and Japanese leg of the torch relay with the concept of “Hope Lights Our Way” was scheduled to begin on March 26 from J Village in Fukushima prefecture. However, on March 24 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the Tokyo Games due to the spreading of the novel coronavirus. Consequently IOC made a decision to accept it. 

What a strange 2020 it’s been so far. For the satellite industry. For the broader space industry. For the entirety of humanity. When we rang in the new decade just a few months ago, no one could have foreseen the enormous changes that were coming to the way we live, work, and geek out about space. 

AVOD expenditure will more than double between 2019 and 2025 to reach US$ 53 billion across 138 countries according to Digital TV Research. 

The US became the largest AVOD expenditure country in 2019 as China saw expenditure fall by 8.9% due to its economic downturn.

As part of its ongoing Simplify & Amplify transformation program, satellite operator SES announced  that it plans to restructure its operations worldwide, including the consolidation of part of its European regional operations into the company’s global headquarters in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.

Comtech EF Data Corp. received a US$ 1.7 million order for engineering services from Hughes Network Systems, LLC to support the Data Link Modernization (“DLM”) contract by providing new advanced satellite communications systems for the U.S. Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Additional orders are expected in future periods.

NSR’s Cloud Computing via Satellite report, released today, projects 52 Exabytes of Traffic by 2029, with players in the satellite and space industry contributing cumulative revenue of US$ 16 B from 2019-2029. The market is largely satcom-centric, with a significant portion of the revenue flow going to service providers and satellite operators.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) announced today that during its third quarter of fiscal 2020, its Tempe, Arizona-based subsidiary, Comtech EF Data Corp., which is part of Comtech’s Commercial Solutions segment, received a US$ 4.7 million contract for engineering services from a large prime U.S. Department of Defense contractor to support a critical Air Force and Army Anti-jam Modem (A3M) program under the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).

Cellular backhaul is is a growing market segment for satellite companies. To shed light on this key vertical, Satellite Markets and Research spoke with Semir Hassanaly, Head of Cellular Backhaul and Trunking, ST Engineering iDirect. Excerpts of the interview follows:

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) finds that since the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, 53% of adults ages 18 and above in U.S. TV households agree (8-10 on a 1-10 scale) that they now spend more time watching TV per day, while 16% disagree (1-3).

The World Teleport Association (WTA) today announced the election of two new members to its Board of Directors for three-year terms beginning April 1, 2020: Jay LaPrise, Senior Vice President, Global Transmission Operations, Encompass Digital Media and Guido Neumann, Chief Development Officer & President EMEA, AXESS Networks.

In addition, the election returned one board member for a second term: