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Industry Leaders Differ On HDTV Strategies, Commitment

By Staff Writer | March 4, 2004

      The world of fixed satellite services (FSS) is evolving into one of scrappy survivors whose leaders are viewing the same marketplace opportunities and challenges but are drawing different conclusions about the best actions to take.

      The latest example occurred during the Satellite 2004 conference’s “Industry Leaders Roundtable” in Washington, D.C., this week when FSS CEOs highlighted their varying approaches to growth. The corporate chiefs specifically differed on their views about consolidation, HDTV and Ka-band services.

      Giuliano Berretta, chairman and CEO of Eutelsat S.A., said the key to the industry’s progress is in tapping new applications, not necessarily consolidation. “There already is quite a lot of consolidation in this sector,” said Berretta, who pointed out the vast majority of satellite services worldwide are carried out by about a half-dozen companies.

      Conny Kullman, Intelsat‘s CEO, took a different view by explaining the current overcapacity in the industry could be addressed, to some extent, if certain companies combined and reconfigured their in-orbit assets. That realignment could involve moving satellites from regions of vast overcapacity to those in need of additional transponders.

      Joe Wright, PanAmSat‘s CEO, said consolidation was occurring already but not necessarily on a company-by-company basis. Consolidation makes sense when companies can take advantage of strong markets to avoid keeping capacity in weak markets just to have a presence, he added.

      For in-depth coverage of this story, see the March 8 issue of Satellite News. For more information about subscribing to PBI Media’s satellite newsletters, check out our Web site at www.satellitetoday.com.