Revenues for C and Ku band satellites should reach $12.5 billion (€9.2 billion) this year and then grow by 26% to almost $16 billion by 2018.
According to a new IHS report entitled Worldwide Satellite 2013 Market Tracker, there will be over 450 active satellites at the end of this year, of which 311 will serve commercial communication in either C or Ku bands.
Driven primarily by media services and content distribution, total active satellites have increased by 20% since 2006.
The three largest global operators – Intelsat, SES and Eutelsat – own 45 per cent of all commercial satellites, and offer services to each of the seven regions. Smaller regional operators focused supply the majority of available transponders in most markets.
The gap between the number of satellites and transponders supplied by the largest three operators and all other satellite operators has become even more prominent, as limited orbital positions and entrenchment of key orbitals have centralised revenue and high margins.
The largest players continue to acquire smaller operators while at the same time collaborating with start-ups offering them their know-how and marketing tools for a share of payloads.
The total number of supplied transponders has been growing, driven by channel distribution for Ku band and by telecommunication services for C band.
Total supplied transponders this year grew by 36% from 2006, and will continue to grow to 2018.
While both C and Ku band will see growth, Ku band is the stronger market, accounting for 8 % more of the total available capacity in 2013 than in 2006. With the exception of Intelsat, all other satellite providers have increased their transponder load.
The growing number of available transponders will put further price pressure in many regions, slowing price increases per utilised transponder.
While hot spots in European and North America have traditionally offered the highest price per transponder, the increased supply coupled with a slowdown in channel growth and competitive threats from other transport medium will slow price increases in the future.
In the rest of the world, Asia-Pacific and Africa demand will significantly outstrip supply causing these markets to become much more attractive in coming years. C and Ku revenue will increase by one-third through over the next five years.
Most revenue growth will be attributed to Ku band, but utilisation of C band as a return path may spread the growth if there is uptake and risks to losing C band spectrum to mobile is avoided.
Rising prices per utilised transponder will be good news for this still high margin industry, and in particular for the top 10 players who collectively account for over 70% of the market revenue in 2012 and have the leverage to command the best orbital positions.
