NSR Releases New Report on Global Satellite Capacity

NSR Global Satellite Capacity Supply & Demand forecasts. Photo: NSR

[Via Satellite 07-22-2014] Northern Sky Research (NSR) has released the 11th edition of the “Global Satellite Capacity Supply and Demand” report, which finds the growing amount of available capacity will exceed demand as more High Throughput Satellite (HTS) systems come online. While this poses a risk of oversupply, NSR projects market growth of 76 percent, growing from roughly $11.8 billion today to $21.1 billion by 2023.

“For HTS it remains a ‘land-grab phase’ where business cases beyond broadband access need to pan out before most ventures turn profitable,” said Prashant Butani, senior analyst at NSR and co-author of the report.

“Looking at global demand, the hype surrounding HTS is indeed justified, with a demand growth rate of over 30 percent annually, compared to less than 2 percent for traditional [Fixed Satellite Services] FSS C-, Ku-, and Widebeam Ka-band capacity,” added Blaine Curcio, NSR analyst and report co-author. “However, concerns about cannibalization by HTS are rather overplayed — indeed, we find that, simply put, some applications are better-suited for HTS, such as broadband, whereas others, such as video distribution and [Direct to Home] DTH, will remain firmly rooted in traditional FSS. There will be some battleground applications, such as commercial mobility, but both traditional FSS and HTS will continue to enjoy their ‘bread and butter’ applications moving forward.”