Eutelsat 3Q Report: Broadcast Gains Shine Through Mixed Overall Results

Eutelsat headquarters in Paris, France. Photo: Eutelsat

Slight gains in broadcast revenues highlighted Eutelsat’s 2019 third fiscal quarter results, which were slightly better than it’s previous quarter, but down from the same period last year. Overall revenues from its different verticals were down 1.6 percent compared to the operator’s performance in 3Q 2018.

For the three months to the end of March, the company had overall revenues of 322 million Euros ($349 million), 14 million Euros down compared to the same stage last year. Its broadcast business gained revenues of 198.8 million euros ($215.5 million) in the three months to the end of March, up just under $1 million compared to the same stage last year.

A strong performance in broadcast is vital for Eutelsat, as broadcast still represents over 60 percent of its overall revenues. On a quarter-by-quarter basis, broadcast revenues actually rose over 2 percent.

In the government side of its business, it generated revenues of 40 million euros ($43.4 million) in the quarter, down 2.4 percent compared to the same stage last year, but up 2.3 percent compared to the previous quarter.

An interesting barometer for the company will be mobile connectivity, which only represents 6 percent of the company’s overall revenues. Here, in the three months to the end of March, it had revenues of 20.8 million Euros ($22.5 million), up two percent year-on-year. However, Eutelsat expects a slowdown due to COVID-19 to really impact the company’s revenues in mobile connectivity in the next quarter.

“As we continue to assess the effects on future years, we do so with the confidence that our strong financial position and cash-flow generation capacity, together with our combination of resilient heritage activities and connectivity-related growth opportunities will ensure we are well positioned to withstand challenges of the current environment,” said Rodolphe Belmer, CEO, Eutelsat in a statement.