The ‘Big Three’ Make Waves and Place Their Bets

As we approach the second half of trade show season with key events such as IBC, VSAT, and World Satellite Business Week on the horizon, we can reflect on a busy start to the year. It is interesting that both Intelsat and SES have scaled up their interest in Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) satellites, with Intelsat recently investing in OneWeb. SES, of course, invested in O3b awhile ago, and that investment is key part of their overall strategy.

NGSO satellites are the new bet, adding to the armory of FSS operators who are taking steps out of their comfort zone. While Eutelsat is the only one of the “Big Three” not to invest in a Greg Wyler initiative yet, it has hardly stood still in recent years with a major re-positioning in Latin America and Asia, as well as exciting technology initiatives such as “Quantum.” These operators are often the flag bearers for our industry, and in recent years they have all made key acquisitions and strategic investments in order to make sure they retain their relevance going forward.

In this edition of Via Satellite, we continue our focus of talking to a lot of end user communities about how they will use satellite going forward. We talk to some key broadcasters in Europe that have taken the plunge early to launch 4K channels. We have also talked to a number of major news broadcasters about how HTS are changing the way they shoot news. We also have a great case study talking to journalist Jenan Moussa, who uses satellite technology in places like Iraq and Syria to report on breaking news. Finally, we talk to key officials in the U.S. military about how their strategy toward satellite is evolving.

I look forward to seeing you at a variety of trade shows in September. I hope you all enjoyed your summer break and, after an intriguing first half of the year, we look forward to seeing if the end of the year will create as many talking points as we have seen so far.